(EDITOR’S NOTE: As the guy who said to Ted, “Yes, we should have steady Monday through Friday articles with no exceptions,” it’s a little embarrassing to be the first person who dropped the ball. I had the article written, and then I took a break to read a comic before I posted it, and then I fell asleep and woke up the next morning.
(There’s a reason I’m writing a comic about old age. This is the sort of thing that only happens to you when you’re in your mid-thirties and sober. For my next trick, I’ll drool into a bib.
(Anyway, please accept my apologies. Hopefully, you’ll enjoy it just as much a day later, and I will not drop the ball again — T.F.)
One of the problems in writing for StarCityGames.com is that StarCityGames is a family-friendly site. That means that I cannot swear, a thing I do copiously in real life. While my online image here is as squeaky-clean as a freshly-bathed Walt Disney, in person I tend to curse so vitriolically that wallpaper peels around me.
Occasionally, a small child wanders within earshot — and she ages years in an instant, her hair turning a dry, strawlike color as the vortex of filth that spews from my mouth teaches her more than she ever needed (or wanted) to know about the world. Behind her, parents weep. Teenagers take notes, wondering what in God’s name I would care whether a trombone was rusted or not.
Thus, I cannot ask the question that I was actually asking people at Grand Prix: Richmond — StarCityGames.com would never allow such language on their site. But they do allow substitutions, so we’re going to substitute a word here. That substituted word will also begin with an F.
That word will be “foul.”
And that question is, is it better to foul your mana or to foul your playables?
It’s a very important question in Ravnica Sealed, because quite often you’ll wind up with a conundrum: you can play twenty-three killer cards, where every card is worth having in the deck, but you have to go four colors. Or you can go with three colors and throw a few marginal cards in to bring it up to twenty-three, lowering the number of late-game elbow drops but also minimizing your manascrew.
Is it right to trade power for consistency? Everyone I asked had a different answer, and even BDM was asking people for the Sideboard. A lot of people said that “power” was the answer, since you’d lose if you got to the late game and couldn’t topdeck bombs of equal power. But an equivalent number of people retorted that no, you’d lose more games to manascrew than to opposing bombs.
Who’s right?
The answer, of course, is highly deck-dependent, and acting as if there’s one clear-cut answer is suicide. There are some decks where you have no choice but to go four-color (even if they’re usually pools where you’re going to lose no matter what you do). And there are strong decks where you have absolutely no need to dip into a fourth color, because God handed you three great colors and you don’t need any help.
But most Sealed builds will be asking the question: Consistency or power? And the only way to truly answer that is to look at the decks that went undefeated on Day One, before the pros started playing Draft, and to try to draw some conclusions from the five decks that smashed their way to the top five slots.
The problem, of course, is that any conclusion we draw is going to be at least a little skewed — mainly because we don’t know what else was in their card pool. It could be that Jon Sonne opened a deck with killer green, and just happened to misbuild a U/B/W deck that took him through five undefeated rounds after three byes.
But I doubt that. Let’s assume competence on the part of the undefeateds; it’s the least we can do. And with that in mind, let’s analyze their decks for All-Star Commons (cards that would strongly pull me into a certain color — you may disagree with me about my admittedly subjective rankings in the forums), All-Star Uncommons (ditto), and Rares (to see whether opening the right rare is the key to 8-0ing).
We’ll start with the guy I was rooting for to make Day Two the most (aside from me, of course):
Creatures (12)
- 1 Golgari Rotwurm
- 1 Greater Mossdog
- 1 Screeching Griffin
- 1 Selesnya Evangel
- 1 Selesnya Guildmage
- 1 Tolsimir Wolfblood
- 2 Blind Hunter
- 1 Harrier Griffin
- 1 Mourning Thrull
- 1 Ostiary Thrull
- 1 Wild Cantor
Lands (17)
Spells (11)
Colors: Three
All-Star Commons: Selesnya Evangel, 2 Blind Hunter, Faith’s Fetters, Ostiary Thrull, Fists of Ironwood, Scatter the Seeds
All-Star Uncommons: Harrier Griffin, Predatory Focus, Putrefy
Rares: Tolsimir Wolfblood
Bouncelands: One
Signets: Two
Removal Count: Two (Fetters, Putrefy), possibly three if you count the Recollect
Let’s start with the man I know. Jim’s deck was a solid deck, but it got Jim to 8-0 because he had a lot of luck along the way. I mean this as no slight to Jim, who is not only a good player but a friend of mine. But in Round 8, I witnessed Jim’s opponent draw nothin’ but land in the third game as Jim swarmed him under with five 1/1 Vitu-Ghazi tokens, and the same thing pretty much happened in Round 6.
Jim’s a good player and it’s not like his deck played itself, but luck played at least a part in bringing him up to that top table. Then again, who could we not say that about?
That said, it’s a strong three-color deck — a little low on creatures, but high on tricks and tokens. You wouldn’t need to go to four colors, because almost every card here is a solid “playable.”
Creatures (15)
- 1 Elves of Deep Shadow
- 1 Centaur Safeguard
- 1 Conclave Equenaut
- 1 Dowsing Shaman
- 1 Elvish Skysweeper
- 1 Guardian of Vitu-Ghazi
- 1 Indentured Oaf
- 1 Sandsower
- 1 Scion of the Wild
- 1 Selesnya Evangel
- 1 Skyknight Legionnaire
- 1 Tolsimir Wolfblood
- 1 Graven Dominator
- 1 Gruul Guildmage
- 1 Tin Street Hooligan
Lands (16)
Spells (9)
Colors: Three
All-Star Commons: Conclave Equenaut, Guardian of Vitu-Ghazi, Selesnya Evangel, Devouring Light, Seed Spark, Galvanic Arc, Fists of Ironwood, Scatter the Seeds
All-Star Uncommons: Sandsower, Dowsing Shaman, Congregation at Dawn, Gruul Guildmage
Rares: Tolsimir Wolfblood, Graven Dominator, Scion of the Wild
Bouncelands: Three
Signets: One
Removal: Three (Devouring Light, Fiery Conclusion, Galvanic Arc)
If we were to go by numbers thus far, the trick to going 8-0 is “Open Selesnya Evangel and Tolsimir Wolfblood.” And I think that is a fine strategy, if you can achieve it… But unless you’re Mike Long, this is not something that you can consistently accomplish (and considering the spate of disqualifications for adding cards that happened at Richmond, you’d be a fool to try). Thus, we must look deeper.
This is a deck filled with fun little synergies, starting with Galvanic Arc and Dowsing Shaman. Then you have the Congregation at Dawn to get those broken rare critters, which can set you up with a killer topdeck war (barring a Lurking Informant on the other side of the table, of course). And when your opponents rely so heavily upon Signets for mana-fixing, a Seed Spark that not only screws their mana but adds to your offense can be killer.
I’m not sold on his use of Scion of the Wild here, which I find to be way too situational….But then again, I didn’t 8-0, so what do I know? In any case, this is a deck with strong rares and a lot of good commons; there’s no need to consider going to four, since there’s practically no filler in the deck.
(And yes, technically, the Temple Garden counts as a rare here, but I’m not considering it as a tremendously game-altering rare. Your mileage may vary.)
Creatures (12)
- 1 Dimir Guildmage
- 1 Dimir House Guard
- 1 Dimir Infiltrator
- 1 Moroii
- 1 Roofstalker Wight
- 1 Surveilling Sprite
- 1 Tattered Drake
- 1 Tidewater Minion
- 1 Blind Hunter
- 2 Ghost Warden
- 1 Orzhov Euthanist
Lands (17)
Spells (11)
Colors: Three
All-Star Commons: Dimir House Guard, Devouring Light, Disembowel, Strands of Undeath, Ghost Warden, Blind Hunter, Pillory of the Sleepless
All-Star Uncommons: Moroii, Mortify, Dimir Guildmage
Rares: Sunforger
Bouncelands: None
Signets: One
Removal: Four (Mortify, Pillory of the Sleepless, Devouring Light, Disembowel), and arguably double-Repeal
This deck doesn’t have a whole lot of brokenness in the creature department, but it does have a lot of “stall until I can get my huge guy online” tricks built in. His only rare is the Sunforger.
And here is the first time we start looking at marginal cards. Both Roofstalker Wight and Surveilling Sprite, while certainly not bad in this deck, aren’t worldbreakers. They must have been outclassed by some of the other rares and/or commons Sonne opened up in his card pool. (Or perhaps he just decided that “anything that flies” plus a Sunforger is a good combo.)
Again, it’s hard to say without knowing, but I’d be willing to guess that Sonne made the choice to go with three colors for mana consistency, adding in a Signet just in case he got the shot at Sunforgering for Mortify or Devouring Light.
Creatures (15)
- 1 Boros Recruit
- 1 Dimir House Guard
- 1 Drooling Groodion
- 1 Gleancrawler
- 1 Golgari Guildmage
- 1 Selesnya Guildmage
- 1 Transluminant
- 1 Viashino Fangtail
- 1 War-Torch Goblin
- 1 Wojek Embermage
- 1 Burning-Tree Bloodscale
- 1 Gruul Scrapper
- 1 Mourning Thrull
- 1 Scab-Clan Mauler
- 1 Streetbreaker Wurm
Lands (17)
Spells (8)
Colors: Four
All-Star Commons: Streetbreaker Wurm, Viashino Fangtail, Last Gasp, Scatter the Seeds
All-Star Uncommons: Drooling Groodion, Cleansing Beam, Golgari Guildmage, Selesnya Guildmage, Ribbons of Night
Rares: Gleancrawler
Signet: One
Bouncelands: Three
Removal: Four (Fiery Conclusion, Cleansing Beam, Last Gasp, Ribbons of Night)
The first truly four-color deck we’ve seen, this is actually a five-color deck that plays like a three, splashing a Dimir Aqueduct for the Ribbons and the White for the Selesnya Guildmage’s effect (which is, arguably, not a splash). The mana actually works out fairly well here, with three bouncelands and a Signet to smooth the way.
However, this is a ludicrously strong deck in many ways, starting with the nasty Gleancrawler/Drooling Groodion combo, moving up to the double-Guildmage pair, and then edging over to a fine pile of beef to back it up. Not to demean Taylor’s play skills, of course — I mean, the man finished sixth, for cryin’ out loud, so his ascension was clearly no fluke — but this was an awfully strong deck to open. There’s not a single marginal card in here except for possibly Mourning Thrull, which I personally love but I saw people disdaining all weekend.
Creatures (15)
- 1 Centaur Safeguard
- 1 Golgari Guildmage
- 1 Junktroller
- 1 Lurking Informant
- 1 Netherborn Phalanx
- 1 Screeching Griffin
- 1 Sewerdreg
- 1 Angel of Despair
- 1 Blind Hunter
- 1 Living Inferno
- 1 Order of the Stars
- 1 Ostiary Thrull
- 1 Restless Bones
- 1 Revenant Patriarch
- 1 Shrieking Grotesque
Lands (17)
Spells (8)
Colors: Four
All-Star Commons: Ostiary Thrull, Blind Hunter, Shrieking Grotesque, Lurking Informant, Faith’s Fetters, Clinging Darkness, Last Gasp, Strands of Undeath, Galvanic Arc
All-Star Uncommons: Netherborn Phalanx, Golgari Guildmage
Rares: Living Inferno, Angel of Despair
Bouncelands: Three
Signets: One
Removal: Four (Faith’s Fetters, Galvanic Arc, Clinging Darkness, Last Gasp)
And last but not least, we have Kenji Tsumura, who probably knows what the heck he’s doing, being Player of the Year and all. So why did he go to four?
Well, for one thing he could do it painlessly — he had the Signet and the Rot Farm to cast his stuff without getting screwed in his main colors. Adding Green snagged him the off-color Guildmage activation and a new chance to cast Safeguard. Not a bad trade-off at all. He technically splashes Blue, but if you look at it closely he’s only got a Lurking Informant, which could just as easily be a Black card.
Kenji also had some nice fat cards in the rare slot — both Angel and Inferno are quite excellent if you can get up to the point where you can cast them, and he had a fair amount of early-game action, stalling if he needed it (if you can’t buy some time with Order of the Stars, Junktroller, and Revenant Patriarch, you were probably going to lose anyway) and mana-ramping to ensure that he could get to the big guys.
But even so, either he knows something about Restless Bones that I don’t or I smell filler. Thus, I suspect that he was keeping himself down to an effective three colors.
So. What lessons can we ascertain from this admittedly-small sample size?
Splash With Signets And Bouncelands.
The one thing you will not note here is a two-land splash, even with cards like Farseek and Civic Wayfinder available. In every single one of the four-color decks, the splash came from a bounceland and a Signet, which makes sense. Building a four-color mana base with normal lands leave you open to mana-screw at the worst moments; starting off with the two splashed Plains in your hand is a near-guarantee that you’ll be locked out of at least one color. Who wants to start with a fourth of their deck stashed neatly out of reach?
But if you can add in a fourth color with Signets or bouncelands, then you’ll be guaranteed to always have one of your main colors with you. Ugly, but true. Now, this isn’t news — I was talking about viable mana bases over a month ago, and Sean McKeown referenced it last week — but it bears repeating yet again: build the mana base right.
That said, unfortunately the mana bases will sometimes have to run a little more even than you’d like. I mean, you never want to go 6-6-5, but there’s a lot of 6-5-4s out there. Ideally, you can go with 6-5-3 and a couple of bouncelands and Signets to clean it up.
Splash For Activations.
Again, the splashers didn’t splash for cards here, but extra effects. They didn’t throw in a card for its power; they tried to squeeze more power out of a card, a subtle difference that players would do well to note. We’ll see whether this trend continues at Dortmund or not.
Stick With Three Colors.
Right now, the “Power vs. Mana” balance seems to skew towards “Mana.” Even when the undefeateds eased into another color, they did it without committing a whole card… And Jon Sonne stayed in three colors, period. Which means that until we can mine some more information out of another big Sealed tournament, current wisdom says, “Consistency over strength.”
Of course, if you can open strength and consistency, go right ahead.
It’s Not About The Rares.
There were eight game-altering rares split between the five decks, and three of them were in Taylor Webb’s deck. This isn’t Onslaught Block, where you could occasionally just ride to safety on the back of an unkillable Visara, or Invasion, where opening a Dragon was often the key to a big win; in Ravnica, the commons and uncommons are more key than ever. You’d better build a deck, not a couple of rares glued together with marginals.
It’s Not About Izzet.
Or at least, Izzet cards were mighty thin on the ground in the undefeated bracket. Okay, you only got two packs of Guildpact to find Izzet cards — but Orzhov was everywhere, Gruul was in two decks, yet Izzet was nowhere to be found.
Is the ‘Zet weak? Well, that’s what I heard a lot of people saying; Izzet was nice, but you had to burn too many cards to get rid of a fatty, and you didn’t have enough fatties yourself to match them.
Once again: Dortmund. Bigger sample size. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Selesnya’s Still Strong.
The power of Scatter the Seeds and Fists of Ironwood has not diminished, even though you get fewer of them these days. Do not underestimate them. In fact, building a deck around ‘em couldn’t hurt, if you want.
If You Don’t Have At Least Three Removal Spells, Try Again.
The defining quality of these decks is not broken rares or even broken uncommons, but removal. Every one of ‘em had at least three removal spells except for my lucksack drinkin’ buddy Jimmy Bean.
Again, not even close to new advice. But hey, somebody might not know it. Next week, I’ll be opening up a deck of my own for you to analyze…. And assuming the coverage gives us the Day One Undefeated Decks, we’ll see just what happened at Dortmund and whether the same lessons are repeated.
The Weekly Plug Bug:
Once again, I’d like to remind you of my fantabulous Web comic Home on the Strange. Since today is Valentine’s Day, naturally this is the week that we’ve chosen to mock peoples’ heartbreak and loss. Plus, someone’s door gets kicked in.
Signing off,
The Ferrett
TheFerrett@StarCityGames.com
The Here Edits This Here Site Here Guy