Sealed Dissected - Future Seeing, Vol. 3: The Really Big Show

Most of the American readers are cramming are probably too busy wrapped up in Regionals to be paying attention to the weekend’s Future Sight release tournaments on Magic Online. It’s a shame; this format only happens for a short time for each set.

There’s something I’ve got to get out of the way before I go any further. I love Sealed, but I ain’t too keen on prereleases. The extra pack is great for newer players, as it makes the format more forgiving, more full of awesome cards. Players who are at a prerelease get ladled a big heaping helping of goodness. It’s easy to make a fairly decent deck without too much hassle. I want a harsh, cruel format where players have to dig up every ounce of their strength and mental tenacity to put together their absolute best.

This angst is a small undercurrent countering the excitement and captivation of how awesome the new cards are. Griping helps me avoid irrational exuberance, because prereleases are also incredibly fun, chaotic affairs. Many players miss hidden synergies when building their decks, but find the trick pieced together in their hands.

Magic Online prerelease events are particularly pernicious in their leniency. Players who engage in physical cardboard chaos come to the table with a solidly defined game plan. However, many Online-only players aren’t familiar with the new cards and often build questionable decks. The competition’s either really sharp, or considerably behind the curve, without a happy medium. Since I religiously attend paper prereleases, the cards just aren’t shiny or lustrous.

Paradoxically, prerelease pools are particularly challenging to build properly in that there’s so many of the blasted cards. The opportunities for mistakes are great. However, the power level is higher and much more forgiving. It’s like trying to learn how to get good at mountain biking when you’re in the middle of the Great Plains. There just isn’t enough resistance to really exert one’s skill and build good habits. Speaking of good habits…

Responding to his piece on Monday, the Ferrett said that his reliance on Magic Online’s auto-sorting function made him overlook Gathan Raiders. I avoid this practice by dragging all the cards I like down into the deck window in every color. And I do it for every category. That takes a minute or two, but it’s a habit worth cultivating. Then I look again.

Without further ado, here’s our Olympic-sized pool.

Release Week Cardpool

Eli Kaplan

Test deck on 06-10-2007

Time Spiral Limited

Creatures (46)

Lands (5)

Spells (37)

That’s a lot of information to chew over. Here, have some white space and go at it. Then scroll down and see my card evaluation, and afterwards go yell at me in the forums.

…

(sung to the tune of Grand Master Flash and The Furious Five’s "White Lines")

White space (vanilla, total blank)
It fills my miiiind (moving cards at the speed of sound)
White space (the area for thought)
Got my duals signed (Myfors, Alexander)

…

I’m going to have to work on that one for a while.

…

White
Solid: Castle Raptor, Lucent Liminid
Decent: 2 Augur il-Vec, Blade of the Sixth Pride, Lymph Sliver, Saltskitter, Sidewinder Sliver, Zealot il-Vec, Momentary Blink
Poor: Lost Auramancers, Plated Pegasus, Enduring Renewal

Lucent Liminid’s a member of the fine, long-standing five-mana 3/3 flier class. It didn’t do all its homework, however, so it ends up an enchantment, leaving it vulnerable to random Disenchant effects or Cloudchaser Kestrel. Most players don’t run Disenchants as their 23rd card, so the liability’s relatively minor. A big thumbs up goes to Wizards for printing this guy, who will find a home in casual players’ Enchantress decks.

Augur il-Vec is a perfectly reasonable two-drop for White controlling decks. It preserves your life against shadow attackers, or gets in for a few points. You’ll often find yourself sacrificing the Augur on turn 6 or 7 to keep yourself out of a bad situation. If you’re a deck seeking to race, however, leave these guys at home.

Living in Nagoya’s equivalent of Greenwich Village, I see a ton of maid cafes. Some of these cafes’ waitresses wear cat ears. The service is weird, and the food is unrepentantly bad. They usually serve nasty rice omelets with cutesy messages in ketchup. That’s what comes to mind when I look at Blade of the Sixth Pride. (Okay, and a 3/1 for 1W rebel is a great deal.)

Lymph Sliver’s Absorb is a great combat ability that I’m eager to see implemented in sets down the line. This guy isn’t quite Durkwood Boars quality, but he’s close.

Don’t expect to block with Saltskitter. On the positive side, the Wurm does frequently force your opponents to play creatures before they attack, reducing their ability to play expensive combat tricks. On the negative side again, most of the combat tricks in this format (Might of Old Krosa, Judge Unworthy, Feebleness, Brute Force, Strength in Numbers) are dirt cheap.

White has a fair amount of expensive evasion creatures, but few bargains in the three- or four-drop range, and only one combat trick. You’re better off looking elsewhere.

Blue
Solid: Crookclaw Transmuter, Riftwing Cloudskate, Whip-Spine Drake, 2 Foresee, Careful Consideration
Decent: Blind Phantasm, Stormscape Familiar, Tolarian Sentinel, Delay, Logic Knot, Snapback, Spell Burst, Nix, Venser’s Diffusion, Walk the Aeons
Poor: Screeching Sliver, 2 Vedalken Aethermage, Clockspinning

Foresee’s an amazing card draw spell, and I’ll rank it ahead of Careful Consideration, despite being restricted as a sorcery, because it digs so much deeper into the deck. Having two really affords us some deck building options.

Playing Whip-Spine Drake face down without White mana is not anyone’s idea of a good time, but sometimes it’s necessary to maintain board parity. Prismatic Lens makes flipping the Drake a possibility, but the odds are long.

If Logic Knot’s casting cost was U1X or even U2X instead of UUX, I’d happily play with it, but it’d be broken. But holding double-Blue back is a painful prospect. I don’t care for this card all that much in Sealed. Draft is another matter. Delay, on the other hand, is a fine piece of countermagic. [Hmm… I Delayed my opponent’s turn 3 morph in a draft last night. Turned out to be a Slipstream Serpent. – Craig, battered.]

Nix counters suspended spells, storm copies, and Pacts. That’s it. I tried to write a briefer analysis, since the card name’s so short, but I just couldn’t do it.

Vedalken Aethermage seems like the worst of many worlds. It’s a god-awful car with a fancy paint job and navigation system already installed. There aren’t that many good Wizards in the format to tutor for anyway. However, against a dedicated Sliver deck, Aethermage may be the critical bounce spell that allows you to take out the key pieces of their offensive press and remove the rest of the annoying buggers. Given the low number of slivers in Future Sight, you’re probably not going to see the card show up except in draft.

Blue’s got a fair number of relatively cheap spells and suspend men. It’s a fine candidate for a main deck color.

Black
Solid: Trespasser il-Vec, Urborg Syphon-Mage, Dark Withering, Ichor Slick, Sudden Spoiling
Decent: Mass of Ghouls, Viscid Lemures, Feebleness, Festering March
Poor: Pooling Venom, Putrid Cyclops, Fallen Ideal, Grave Peril, Oblivion Crown

Ichor Slick? Yes, please. Its cycling makes it an ideal splash card, as it replaces itself when you’re missing Black mana. But you knew that already.

Should we be maindecking Festering March? Given the large number of X/1s in the format, it seems highly desirable against Thallid decks. I’ve been sideboarding it quite often in Game 2 against a lot of decks, but given the cost I’m still a little loathe to promote it to maindeck status. It’s not quite as good as Subterranean Shambler.

Mass of Ghouls isn’t nearly as impressive to me as Fomori Nomad, if only because there’s too many Rift Bolts and Ghostfires flying around in this particular Sealed format. Double-Black is another turnoff. But it’s hard to say no to a 5/3.

Pooling Venom’s an interesting pick for a R/B jank aggro draft deck that relies on cards like Keldon Marauders. It may find a home in that rather leaky archetype. But forget about it in Sealed.

Putrid Cyclops may be somewhat reasonable in a deck loaded with land and tons of five- and six-drops. It helps you hit your land drop and holds the fort. And you don’t want to go too heavily on weenies. As tempting as running a Sealed deck with thirteen two-drops is, the format’s got too many three- and four-mana guys that trump the two-drops. If Putrid Cyclops was printed in Scourge, it’d be a nightmare. But in Future Sight, it’s foul.

Oblivion Crown’s so horrible, and yet I know some people will lose to it. It’s a ridiculously lousy finisher. You’ll almost always do better elsewhere.

We have tons of solid removal and a few playable guys, but not quite enough to make Black a leading candidate for a primary color.

Red
Solid: Flowstone Channeler, Fomori Nomad, Arc Blade, Ghostfire, Haze of Rage, Lightning Axe
Decent: Emberwilde Augur, Goblin Skycutter, Goblin Snowman, Grinning Ignus, Ib Halfheart, Goblin Tactician, Rift Elemental, Two-Headed Sliver
Poor: Bogardan Lancer, Ancient Grudge

The Ferrett hasn’t seen Haze of Rage in action, and so underestimates how awesome it is. For six mana, you can give your guys at least +3/+0, and if a suspend guy came into play, it’ll often be +6/+0. That’s ridiculous. It’s best when paired with Green.

In a draft game, I was looking to take down a slow opponent who had little board presence. I knocked him down to 14 with Imperiosaur and Errant Doomsayers on the table. Then he pulled out Numot, the Devastator. With two Plains, two Forests, and a Mountain out, and a Mountain in hand, I had to sit back and watch the Dragon come over and destroy a Mountain and Forest. An Errant Ephemeron was on deck with one suspend counter. His other blocker was tapped by the Doomsayers. I prayed, untapped, drew Thrill of the Hunt, played it, flashbacked it, and played Haze of Rage. My opponent gaped as I added eight power to the board for four mana and came over for the kill.

Respect Haze of Rage. And with Ib Halfheart on the table, it’s possible to get out a host of angry, painful gobs.

Arc Blade is an absolutely fantastic removal spell. With an abundance of removal in the format, you’ll probably find your second and third instances of the spell getting aimed at your opponent’s head. It’s also a fine companion to any deck with many Riddles of Lightning.

You’d think that the opponent would quiver with fear as you played Rift Elemental, which could get scary vicious while powering out Arc Blades every turn. But I’ve found that in game after game, the Elemental never gets to live out its life. It almost always meets its maker once it becomes significant.

The best thing about this Red is not the removal, but the presence of fairly costed men in the two- and three-drop slot. No other color in this pool has the appropriate men for the costs.

Green
Solid: Gemhide Sliver, Llanowar Empath, Sporoloth Ancient, Sprout Swarm, Strength in Numbers
Decent: Quagnoth, Savage Thallid, Spinneret Sliver, Aether Web, Edge of Autumn, Might of Old Krosa, Mwonvuli Acid-Moss, Petrified Plating
Poor: Ravaging Riftwurm, 2 Virulent Sliver, Quiet Disrepair

The magic number for Llanowar Empath to reliably hit creatures is 15. I like the design of this card, because it’s possible to get greedy with it. If you’re in a pinch and the Empath shows you two creatures that are nice, but won’t help your board all that much, you always have potential for a lucky topdeck. This is one of my favorite four-drop 2/2s in quite a while.

Future Sight Designer Zvi Mowshowitz and I are both aficionados of the classic PC RPG adventure Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters, so I’m not surprised that the futuristic fungus Mycon finally made a cameo appearance with this set. Apparently, the Mycon succeeded in building their Juffo-Wup utopia. We didn’t get that card today, but we did get its cousin, fellow fungus lord Sporoloth Ancient. I suspect this card will be one of the sleepers on Magic Online. One valid response to FS prerelease pools brimming with spot removal is to play decks utterly teeming with fatties. Your opponent won’t kill them all. Sporoloth Ancient’s a fine component of that strategy. He may well be the last fattie your opponent can’t deal with.

Shame on you to those of you who didn’t see how amazing Sprout Swarm was. It was the promotional common, for crying out loud! I was on the edge of my seat when Wizards unveiled this tiny Green terror. I never see anyone passing these at Nagoya’s Big Magic these days.

Quagnoth, schmagnoth. It doesn’t trample or have evasion. It’s a fine drop against a deck that has nine removal spells, but those situations don’t happen all that often in Sealed. It’s no Imperiosaur, but it’s a reasonable body.

There are far too many ways for Petrified Plating to go wrong to let me actively like it. If you’re heavy on solid two-drops and want to take a chance, go for it, but I personally don’t care for the card.

Having two Virulent Slivers is awfully exciting when you’ve got Shadow Sliver. This strategy isn’t that hard to pull off in Two-Headed Giant. The tension of watching opponents sweat when you’ve assembled six or seven poison counters is one of the most delightful threats I’ve ever posed at an opponent. The deck’s quite possibly feasible in regular draft, too. But in regular Sealed… forget about it.

Quiet Disrepair’s very awkward and slow for a Naturalize effect, but the possibility for life gain is nothing to sneeze at. It looks like a fine sideboard card against White in FUT-FUT-FUT draft.

There’s some good stuff here, including a strong late game, but the early beats aren’t here. There’s too many holes in the two-, three-, and four-drop slots. I’ve got serious concerns about Green.

Everything Else
Solid: Prismatic Lens, Weatherseed Totem
Decent: Chromatic Star
Poor: Brass Gnat, Soultether Golem

Soultether Golem’s too much hassle for too little reward. Don’t even bother.

Here’s the first pass of the deck. Eight minutes remained on the clock when I saved this one.

1: Lightning Axe
2: Gemhide Sliver, Spinneret Sliver, Edge of Autumn, Haze of Rage, Sprout Swarm, Strength in Numbers
3: Blind Phantasm, Grinning Ignus, Ghostfire, Weatherseed Totem
4: Crookclaw Transmuter, Llanowar Empath, Tolarian Sentinel, Careful Consideration, Foresee
5: Fomori Nomad, Riftwing Cloudskate, Sporoloth Ancient, Whip-Spine Drake
6: Quagnoth, Walk the Aeons

Urza’s Factory
Grove of the Burnwillows
3 Mountain
6 Forest
6 Island

See the problem with this deck? There just isn’t that much removal or mid-game creatures. This deck’s going to have big trouble against any consistent aggressive opening from an opponent. We’ve got some fine options for the end game, with Haze of Rage and Sprout Swarm being particularly handy. Weatherseed Totem isn’t shabby either. We’ve even got quite a bit of evasion with four fliers. Walk the Aeons seems like an amazing game ender.

Even so, this just isn’t quite doing it for me. The early game’s too slow and there just isn’t enough board presence. And where’s the Spell Burst? How about Snapback? The Blue allows me to dictate the situation on the board to a certain degree, but we’re lacking removal.

I scrap the first build and reach for more of Red and Black. I love removal spells, particularly reusable ones. I know, you see great stuff like Arc Blade and Ib Halfheart in the board. Are they what draws me? Nope. Red’s biggest lures are Emberwilde Goblin, Goblin Skycutter, and Flowstone Channeler. We need to call upon cheap men.

Six removal spells don’t hurt either.

1: Lightning Axe
2: Emberwilde Goblin, Goblin Skycutter, Riftwing Cloudskate, Stormscape Familiar, Haze of Rage, Feebleness, Prismatic Lens
3: Blind Phantasm, Flowstone Channeler, Grinning Ignus, Trespasser il-Vec, Urborg Syphon-Mage, Ichor Slick, Ghostfire, Sudden Spoiling
4: Crookclaw Transmuter, Ib Halfheart, Goblin Tactician, Foresee
5: Arc Blade, Fomori Nomad, Whip-Spine Drake
6: Dark Withering

5 Island
6 Mountain
5 Swamp
1 Molten Slagheap

With three minutes to spare, I double-checked the configuration. The color ratio was a little shaky, but there were very few cards that required double colored mana. I bit the bullet and hit the green button.

I swept through my opponents with a deft hand without dropping a game in the Sealed component. (Big deal. In a 2X prize tournament, that’s only three rounds followed by two draws.)

The MVP was easily Sudden Spoiling, which turned opponents’ offensive alpha strikes time and time again into a bloodbath. My deck’s relatively inoffensive men helped most of my opponents glower with overconfidence. Nacatl War-Pride incoming with his buddies? There are very few good answers out there to the cat warriors, but Sudden Spoiling’s the one that makes the difference. One G/W deck’s big burly army of Durkwood Baloth, Sporoloth Ancient, Duskrider Peregrine, and three weenies found itself utterly demolished against a board of a face-down Whip-Spine Drake, Stormscape Familiar, Ib Halfheart, and two of his goblin flunkies. I Spoiled the attack and followed up with a vicious Haze of Rage for the win.

Sudden Spoiling may well be the best Fog effect of all time. The only contender that comes to mind is Invasion’s Tangle.

The most glaring question most readers should be asking at this point is why I didn’t run the second Foresee or Careful Consideration. Is only one Foresee enough? I found that in three matchups against highly aggressive decks, I rarely had any time to put the card draw to use except in the late game. If your build had two or even three of these cards, I wouldn’t disapprove.

The most relevant sideboard card was Festering March, which works wonders against Green decks with annoying Saprolings. It also works a treat against White decks. Viscid Lemures put in yeoman’s work as well, allowing me to pull out a win against a solid B/U/R mirror.

Two draws later, I walked into the draft. Here’s what I walked out with.

1: Essence Warden
2: Errant Doomsayers, Giant Dustwasp, Mire Boa, Mistmeadow Skulk, Pendelhaven Elder, 2 Dawn Charm, Judge Unworthy, Sprout Swarm, Lumithread Field, Temporal Isolation
3: Citanul Woodreaders, Zealot il-Vec, Marshalling Cry, 2 Fortify
4: 2 Pallid Mycoderm
5: Spike Tiller, Sporoloth Ancient, Thelonite Hermit
6: Crovax, Ascendant Hero
7: Havenwood Wurm

8 Plains
8 Forest

I like to draw with sixteen-landers in draft. The card advantage makes up for the loss of tempo.

The game plan’s straightforward. Get some early beats in, make a ton of little guys, and use Fortify or other tricks for the win. Two Dawn Charms help foul up opponents’ removal spells or combat math. Crovax is not the world’s most helpful guy, but he’s a fine backup plan.

This went up against a fairly solid R/B deck brimming with cheap removal spells. He had to make bad trades to handle my 4/4s, though. Mire Boa walked through twice and wrecked him in the first game, and helped me get into range for Spike Tiller beatings.

The second match was the nightmare matchup for the archetype, W/U. Super cheap flying beats with Knight of Sursi, Infiltrator il-Vec, and Riftwing Cloudskates took me down 2-1. Crovax, Ascendant Hero handed me the first game of the match, but a vicious Draining Whelk took him out of action in the third and punted me out of the tournament.

All in all, a fine day’s work. Without a doubt, the biggest factor for Future Sight Prerelease Sealed is the incredibly plentiful, powerful pool of removal. Judge Unworthy, Riddle of Lightning, Flowstone Embrace, Ichor Slick, Death Rattle… there’s simply so much kill out there. The trick is to know when to use them and when to play around them, and when to keep your heavy hitters at home, luring your opposition’s removal out of their hands on small fry.

Keep up the fine comments, builds, and criticisms in the forums. Which build did you like better? Did you take a different route? And if you have a better version of the song in mind, show us your lyrical prowess. I’ve been working too much on technique in the karaoke box, so my improv skills need work.

Join me next week when I talk about something other than Limited. And I mean it this time.

Eli Kaplan
turboeli on Magic Online