Finally, an easy pool for Craig and company to build and discuss in the forums… or is it? Chime in with your opinions on what the correct build is, what cards Craig may be over/undervaluing, and what wax the Scouser should use on his head, all in the latest edition of Sealed Revealed!
To celebrate reaching the halfway point of this outstanding series, Craig has created a little song to go along with his analysis of today’s card pool:
Are your matches fairly tame?
Want success in this fine game?
All you need for instant fame
Is Double Yamabushi’s Flame!
Alright people, it’s time to check out the article series that has everyone talking. If you have any interest at all in improving your Limited game, or if you just like good writing, then Sealed Revealed is for you. Craig’s articles are well-written, delightfully funny, and the forums have been blowing up discussing them, so isn’t it about time you hop on board and see what all the fuss is about?
Another list, another barrage of decisions… we leap through hoops of fire, searching for the golden promise. But sometimes, the massed catalogue of intelligence is too much to bear. We drown in the cards, in the names and the system, floundering for something tangible. I’ve got one more pool for you to peruse this weekend, so follow me and then hop into the forums to chime in with your opinion on this successful experiment.
Card pool two saw us playing with explosives. There were genuine bombs in a couple of colors, and the debate over the correct build is still going strong. So what does card pool three bring us, I wonder? For a start, it’s bringing me Repetitive Strain Disorder and a hearty hatred of Blue, as I’m sick to death of typing the word “Soratami.” However, I will press on and continue our daily discussion of Limited card valuatino and proper Sealed Builds in the article and particularly in the forums. Follow along, kiddies!
Craig continues his quest to get better at Limited Magic and drag the world along with him. He even requests that all of his readers help him out by chiming in with their opinions on his decks and the format in the forums. Here’s what he has to say about today’s card pool: “Card pool one was uninspiring, to say the least. Even the stronger colors were missing key cards in important areas. As we’ll soon discover, card pool two has some powerful spells, but throws up some difficulties of its own.”
Star City’s favorite Scouser (for those of you not from Great Britain, that’s someone from Liverpool… he’s sort of like the Beatles, except short and bald) is back from a hiatus with a mission on his mind: To become better at Limited and drag the world along with him. To further this goal, he will be taking a daily look at a variety of Sealed Deck pools for the next two weeks. If you want to get better at building sealed decks and are looking for a leg up on your competition this PTQ season, then this article series is for you.
If I received a dollar each time someone said”Affinity has been hated out of the metagame”, I’d be Dave frigging Williams. Victims of their own success, Affinity decks have been rightfully feared since the Block began. Fast, consistent, devastating and deadly. But nowadays, their chances are scoffed and derided. Apparently, Ravager is as likely to win as a dolphin at a dog show.
So what’s changed?
I played, as I have for the previous two years, at the English National Championships. I didn’t do as well as I’d hoped. Going into the event, I was ranked 12th in the country. Leaving the event, I presume I’m ranked considerably, and perhaps more realistically, lower.
I recognized Stewart as one of the improving Scottish Magic players. In fact, I may have played him before, but in general I’ve a terrible memory for names and faces. I’m sure if I’d been at the end of some horrendous mauling at his hand, his face would be permanently scarred onto my retinas. He had the baggy pants and baseball cap of the perennially cool, accompanied by the superior sneer that only comes in the rainbow haze of youth.
This deck is much better than you think. My testing for New Orleans saw this deck perform insanely well against Psychatog, and pretty well against both versions of the Goblin Charbelcher deck (Mana Severance and Goblin Recruiter). It suffered against Red Deck Wins, which I didn’t expect to see in huge numbers, and The Rock gave it a tight game with its early disruption.
So, that’s the good stuff. Now, onto the bad stuff. The deck loses to Tinker. Very, very badly. Bye now!
Wait a minute… Tinker has been banned, you say? Well, sing hosannas!
Yo, I’m Craig, and I’m a card-playing wizard,
Beating you up with my mono-white blizzard,
Throwing superior skill in your face,
Winning the gold in the Human Race,
Mono-white rapping like Vanilla Ice,
You wanna do well? Here’s my advice:
Swing with men and dish out defeat!
Play White Weenie, it’s the deck to beat!
An extremely fast red deck with a low land-count could utilize the Goblin Charbelcher’s obviously powerful ability. I can see him finding a home in a deck that utilises deck-stacking techniques, such as Scroll Rack. How about as the kill in a creature-light deck with the new pseudo Oath of Druids/Gaea’s Blessing artifact, Proteus Staff? Make some guys with Raise the Alarm, speed through your deck looking for your only creature, then stack the cards that flew past so that there’s ten cards before you see a land mountain. Activate Charbelcher at an opportune time, win the game.
I was planning to play a variant of Red Deck Wins for the upcoming Extended extravaganza. Then I saw the Chalice of the Void… First-turn Ancient Tomb, Chalice set on one? Cheers for playing. Red Deck Wins has almost thirty one-drops, and the Chalice shuts them all down. Yes, there’s Shatter, or Pillage, or Mogg Salvage in the board, but even so… The loss of the important early two or three turns is crippling. A second Chalice and it’s clobberin’ time.
“I hear you attended the recent Grand Prix in London, Mr Stevenson.” I know the next question before it’s asked.”How did you finish?”
My shoulders slump.”Badly.”
“We know you finished badly, Mr Stevenson. We want you to tell everyone about it.” I swallow hard. The voice becomes sharp, vindictive.”So write.”
“If I do this,” I ask,”will you let me go?”
There is laughter. Then a click. Then silence.
