Smashing Sealed - Preparing for Grand Prix: New Jersey

Where to begin? I am sure you can tell that this article is about Limited by the title, and Time Spiral Limited at that. Tomorrow there happens to be a Grand Prix in my home state of New Jersey. This Grand Prix is a big event. First, of course, there aren’t many Grand Prix tournaments in New Jersey. The last one was a Team Grand Prix, which I believe was also the first and only other Grand Prix in the state. However, should you be attending Grand Prix: New Jersey, the native “professional” Magic Players should not be your only concern – a throng of both Dutch and Japanese players will be present, and I believe a few stray Frenchmen might also be attending. The social gathering of the year? Well, maybe. But let’s not kid ourselves. It is however a North American Grand Prix, and you and I both know I wouldn’t miss it, and neither should you. This Grand Prix comes during the Magic Online release events for the format being played. I’m not sure how many Limited Grand Prix tournaments occur during these events, but suffice to say the public, generally, will be well informed about the format either via articles like this one, or through as much practice as they desire, in either format – Draft or Sealed.

If your intention for the Grand Prix is to do well, I’d hope you were in either of the aforementioned categories. If your intentions are to see a few friends and have a good time, it doesn’t really matter how prepared you are. Preparation isn’t something I can teach you about – you have to practice and learn on your own, whatever works best for you – hopefully you have found out the best plan for your personal circumstances. If not, practice is more difficult (though still worthwhile).

I can, however, talk to you about the two formats, Sealed Deck and Draft. Lately, I’ve seen it mentioned that the notion of practicing Sealed Deck takes a backseat to drafting, and I think that is largely true. I think people get a bad vibe about the concept of Sealed Deck. In the same article I saw this fact mentioned – which I felt was largely on target – it says that Sealed Deck is not skill intensive. This, I feel, is a travesty. Sure, if you break down Sealed Deck there is luck. And, unfortunately for the timing of this article or any other making these claims, this format is even worse in this regard (I’ll explain later). Everyone opens a bunch of cards, and then you start hearing, “oh look at me, I got Sacred Mesa and Disintegrate and Akroma,” but then you look at their final deck and they have a third color, the wrong mana ratio, and not enough lands to start with – essentially what amounts to no chance to succeed. Later in the day they are complaining, but really they need look no further than themselves. Sure, there is absolutely no skill in opening Sacred Mesa and Disintegrate – they run together in Sealed – and getting Akroma in one of the other packs is even luckier… but it’s just that: luck. Making the best use of them, however… that is where the skill lies. A Grand Prix, like the one tomorrow, is a tournament of endurance. You have to survive the first day, and ultimately the second day and then the Top 8 draft, in order to win the event.

Like I said, not everyone goes to a Grand Prix to win the event, but let’s continue not to kid ourselves. If you’re going, you probably want to win. Even if it’s only one percent of you that wants to win, then you want to win: you want to do your best – or the best possible, given your cards and skill. That means you can’t mess up the build!

I wasn’t going to include a cardpool in this article, especially because I haven’t received any interesting ones lately, but it feels incomplete without one…

For your consideration:

Time Spiral Sealed Cardpool

Josh Ravitz

Test deck on 11-12-2006

Time Spiral Limited

Creatures (47)

Lands (3)

I don’t believe in giving the reader space. If you want to continue before building, go ahead.

At first glance, you probably noticed the rares – or at least you were trying to, depending on how you do this. It’s easier to find them in Magic Online, though it probably made the Tribal Flames a common, and the Thornscape Battlemage an uncommon… but I digress.

Yes, there are some good rares in here; some rares that might be worth shaping our deck around, such as Avatar of Woe and Liege of the Pit. Conveniently, our Black is deep enough to not turn this into an issue of splashing the Avatar and ignoring the Liege. Now, as you’ll read below, I think Black is generally the worst color by far – save the “best” common in the set, Strangling Soot. I think I had it pegged in the early weeks, as such, though I wasn’t quite as confident – and I didn’t know just how bad it was. It’s really bad. Like “they-need-to-insert-Reckless-Spite-in-the-common-slot-and-hope-it’s-enough-bad.” That’s bad.

However, this is Sealed Deck; you make the best of what you’ve got. Here’s the Black that we have to work with.

1 Avatar of Woe
1 Basal Sliver
1 Corpulent Corpse
1 Cyclopean Giant
1 Dark Withering
1 Deathspore Thallid
1 Faceless Devourer
1 Gorgon Recluse
1 Liege of the Pit
1 Mana Skimmer
1 Pit Keeper
1 Skittering Monstrosity
1 Skulking Knight
1 Vampiric Sliver
1 Viscid Lemures

Of these cards, there are none that are unplayable; however, there are some I don’t like.

I don’t like Skulking Knight, because (typically) Blue has a million ways to kill this using only mana and no cards. Since people don’t choose what they’re getting in their pool, people will be playing Blue – because that’s what they got in their pool – and when it’s convenient, they will kill your guy at no cost to them. You will have nothing better to do than frown. I don’t hate the card; I just don’t like it in Sealed.

Skittering Monstrosity is another one I don’t like. I don’t like this because, simply, as big as it is for as cheap as it is – a 5/5 for five isn’t that bad a deal – the drawback is simply too monstrous. No more guys or he’s dead? That’s not good.

Cyclopean Giant trades with too many cheap creatures, and the way most decks are structured you don’t want to spend removal clearing the way for him to get through. You likely don’t have enough removal for that plan to work, and it will lead to you losing to their real creatures when your removal has been depleted.

Basal Sliver is basically a Grey Ogre, if your deck doesn’t have six-mana plays that are game-changing (Firemaw Kavu without the echo is still quite good, Haunting Hymn is insane, Mindstab is less so, but still…)

Faceless Devourer, besides having evasion, is typically very disappointing. There are few shadow creatures in the format that you will commonly see – Zealot Il-Dal and Looter Il-Kor being the exceptions. If your opponent has these I’d say just board it in, because every time I’ve drawn this card I’ve been nothing but disappointed.

I also don’t like Gorgon Recluse, but he is what he is. People play Green, and he’s good against Green. He’s good with madness outlets. While we don’t know if we are playing any madness outlets yet, it’s something to consider. This guy isn’t exciting, and in some decks, if you play it, your opponent won’t attack… which means he’s able to block block, which means you probably can’t attack, which sometimes means you can’t win. Though, since I know where this is going, the Recluse is fine in this deck.

Viscid Lemures, of course, isn’t good. But Swampwalk is good, so he’ll make the cut.

Ten cards to choose from, a few “must-plays.”

Next, we really need another base color. We don’t have enough depth here, as you can see, so we must examine the remaining cards on offer.

1 Tribal Flames
1 Basalt Gargoyle
1 Coal Stoker
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Ghitu Firebreathing
1 Goblin Skycutter
1 Ground Rift
1 Ignite Memories
1 Ironclaw Buzzardiers
1 Keldon Halberdier
1 Magus of the Scroll
1 Subterranean Shambler
1 Thick-Skinned Goblin
1 Viashino Bladescout
1 Volcanic Awakening

Who are we kidding? Still no one, I hope.

We can quickly cross Red off the main-color list – if we cut the chaff, it looks more like this:

I have been extremely lenient with the cards I’ve kept. Subterranean Shambler, for example, kills just about every remaining creature, and obviously can’t be included. Viashino Bladescout is just about the least exciting creature imaginable; no matter how many times my opponent “tricks me,” they still have just a 2/1 and I still end up winning, so… yeah. The exciting cards are Basalt Gargoyle, Coal Stoker, Magus of the Scroll, and Tribal Flames. The cards I’d play if I were in Red for some reason, which we are not, are the rest: Thick-Skinned Goblin, Keldon Halberdier, Ironclaw Buzzardiers, Goblin Skycutter, Empty the Warrens (probably) and the aforementioned. However, I can’t see any way to win with those cards, so, most likely we will leave our options open and consider splashing the Magus, Tribal Flames, and perhaps the Subterranean Shambler – who albeit suicidal in Red, could be good (he only kills two of our Black creatures, and if those combined with the late game Magus are the only ones, I could live with it).

2 Crookclaw Transmuter
1 Eternity Snare
1 Fool’s Demise
1 Looter il-Kor
1 Ophidian Eye
1 Sage of Epityr
1 Tolarian Sentinel
1 Viscerid Deepwalker

This is super-disappointing, because I really like Blue! I always have, in this format. There are so many good Blue commons, and we only have a couple. I’m not going to bother striking through, because even as a splash two Crookclaw Transmuters and a Looter il-Kor wouldn’t make the cut. The end.

1 Enduring Renewal
1 Amrou Scout
1 Benalish Cavalry
1 Children of Korlis
1 Divine Congregation
1 Errant Doomsayers
1 Fortify
1 Icatian Crier
1 Momentary Blink
1 Sidewinder Sliver
1 Watcher Sliver

This is similarly disappointing. Enduring Renewal can’t be considered, while Children of Korlis, Divine Congregation and Sidewinder Sliver all suck. That leaves roughly no way to win, and not nearly enough cards, not to mention literally no reason to play the color… moving on.

I guess that brings us to Green.

1 Thornscape Battlemage
1 Chameleon Blur
1 Durkwood Baloth
1 Durkwood Tracker
1 Greenseeker
1 Havenwood Wurm
1 Herd Gnarr
1 Hypergenesis
1 Molder
1 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
1 Search for Tomorrow
1 Sporesower Thallid
1 Strength in Numbers
1 Tromp the Domains
1 Unyaro Bees

It’s not the greatest Green of all time… but it has some nice cards, some nice mana fixers, and a removal spell (not to mention an Overrun with which to win). In real life you would have found Green pretty fast, if you could get past the allure of quick Red beats.

Obligatory strikethrough section:

Beyond that, there are a few issues, not to mention I haven’t started counting for our purposes yet, so there will be more decisions to make unless you follow a similar process when building in real life.

I hate Strength in Numbers. However, as this deck turns out, there are not many real spells (non-“Chromatic Star, Prismatic Lens” spells.) Granting trample isn’t insignificant; the combat restriction, however, is a large downside. When people are playing their burn spells as removal, or their Dark Banishings with toughness requirements, I long for a regular Giant Growth. I don’t think Strength makes the cut in every deck, but it might in this one.

The rest are fairly self-explanatory, even though Durkwood Tracker has never been good for me. It’s too good, in theory, to cut, and the rest are all fairly solid.

Combining the Black, Green, and Artifacts gives us:

1 Avatar of Woe
1 Thornscape Battlemage
1 Chromatic Star
1 Corpulent Corpse
1 Dark Withering
1 Deathspore Thallid
1 Durkwood Baloth
1 Durkwood Tracker
1 Gorgon Recluse
1 Greenseeker
1 Havenwood Wurm
1 Herd Gnarr
1 Liege of the Pit
1 Mana Skimmer
1 Pit Keeper
1 Prismatic Lens
1 Search for Tomorrow
1 Sporesower Thallid
1 Strength in Numbers
1 Tromp the Domains
1 Unyaro Bees
1 Vampiric Sliver
1 Viscid Lemures

Twenty-three cards, without the two Red cards that we want to play (Magus, Flames), and more than enough creatures that are easy cuts. I’d recommend cutting the Vampiric Sliver and the Pit Keeper, and playing seventeen lands with the Chromatic Star – it makes kicking your Battlemage at artifacts easier, which is nice.

As far as sideboard cards go, you have a few cards to consider: Faceless Devourer against shadow, Molder against artifacts and enchantments (duh), and possibly the Skycutter Goblin against blue. It doesn’t really kill any White flyers, but it kills the Crookclaw Transmuter and Fledgling Mawcor, both of which are worthy of killing and very annoying. Against artifact-heavy decks you might simply want to board out Chromatic Star and board in a Plains to help you with your Battlemage – when you draw it, you’ll probably want to double-kick it.

Speaking of lands, I think a straightforward 8/7/2 manabase is correct here. You need a Green mana in your opening hand, and then from there hopefully your Greenseeker and Search for Tomorrows will make all your Magical dreams come true.

And that’s it for building a Sealed Deck!

I don’t love this deck, and I wouldn’t be happy to get it. I think it can make Day 2 of a GP with three byes – I don’t think it will do much better than 6-2, though.

Of course, the Sealed competition just handles Day 1… If you’ve made Day 2, there are a lot of things to consider. Drafting this format is… tricky.

The colors? Well, it depends on what you want to do. Blue is the best color, easily, it sports the highest percentage of good commons – its quality is generally unmatched. White sports similar depth with lower quality, but the added attractiveness of a possible rebel chain in the common slot. Green might very well be the worst color if you aren’t Slivers, then it becomes your most valuable friend. Blue/Green tempo, Blue/Red Storm, White/Blue rebels, Black/Blue – uh – control, Four- and Five-Color Green Slivers, and even Black/Red are all possible archetypes in this format. I say “possible” because they can win. Or so I’ve heard.

You see, I don’t do a lot of winning in this format. And, honestly, I’m not even going to try to tell you what to do. I’ve lost with seemingly awesome decks, time and time again, to lesser players – not to slight them, but you probably know the feeling. I can tell you which commons are the best, I can tell you my color card and deck preferences, but they won’t help you – they aren’t even helping me.

I think that the Sealed Deck format is adversely affected by five fewer commons and five more rares (decks are less solid, worse, less consistent, though they are also splashier and full of bombs). Still, it’s a constraint of the format. In draft, this is similarly true. The packs are absurdly deep, usually. Even if there is nothing for you to take in your second opening pack because of a bad break in the print runs – or if you’re unlucky with rares, uncommons, purples, love, whatever – you might actually hate draft 16th and 24th. The depth of the packs means you will end up with enough playables, within a card or two usually, even if you do a fair bit of hate drafting. So if you’re drafting Slivers, like I was last night (yuck… I’m not doing that again), don’t take Two-Headed Sliver over Ith – the Sliver tabled, and no one had Ith.

Things like that might seem obvious but when the draft is going terribly and you get a chance at Two-Headed Sliver or Ith for your sideboard, don’t tilt. You still have to play against the Ith if you want to win the draft in the 2-0 bracket, the draft isn’t over for you in the 16th pack – it could pick up, and your deck could improve. Make the right pick, take the Ith. Later in that draft I opened Sacred Mesa, Serra Avenger, and Errant Ephemeron and I wasn’t too sure what to do. I ended up taking Undying Rage, which fit my deck extremely well; had my deck been better I might have just cut one of those cards. These are the constraints of the format.

Good luck at the Grand Prix, good luck on Magic Online, good luck in your PTQs… wherever.

Josh Ravitz

Smashing Sealed – Preparing for Grand Prix: New Jersey

Creatures (47)

Lands (3)

Spells (25)