AuthorMartin Dingler

This is it. What I’ve been working towards these last three weeks and wouldn’t you know? I completely wasted all my testing because I failed to realize that the sealed deck format is completely and utterly different from what I thought it was. The reason for this is that all my impressions where gleaned from prerelease style events with three boosters and a tourney pack rather than just two boosters. Sure, I built and played around with some proper sealed decks, but not in a real tournament setting.

After my last article, I was criticized in the forums for talking about the guild pairs as basic archetypes of Ravnica Sealed, since actual Sealed decks are almost always three or more colors. And it’s true that the three types of archetypes are all in some way related to the guilds, as not harnessing their power would just be foolish. Let’s take a look at them,. and see how they apply to drafts.

I opened a sealed deck that I was quite happy with as it finally let me utilize the power of the Golgari and contained a nice splashed bomb in Flame Fusillade. I lost all three matches I played with it, and apart from one I lost to an obvious misplay, I don’t know why I lost. Ravnica appears to have an extra degree of difficulty from your typical Limited environment and though I wasn’t successful last weekend, I did manage to learn a lot. I also have a nice sealed deck exercise for those of you that are interested.

Nearly 5000 words of ooey-gooey Limited goodness. This one contains thoughts and observations on every guild and reports from Martin’s experience playing the new set.

Grand Prix: Nottingham is coming soon, only three weeks after the prerelease, and it will rock. A single GP is of course nothing like a PTQ season. At least it’s nothing like the PTQ London season was around here. There is only one shot at glory and there are only three weeks to get to grips with a brand spanking new format that has nothing whatsoever in common with the brand spanking old and stale format. Three measly weeks to break a Limited format? That requires some atomic-powered speed demon! I intend to become that demon. All y’all can come along for the ride; but beware! The road may be a bit bumpy.

For people like me, who would have a gambling problem if they ever actually gambled and who are true Johnnies at heart, self-control isn’t easy to come by. The Danger of Cool Things isn’t limited to play situations in Constructed, but can already occur during the draft or deck construction portions of a Limited tournament. It is very useful to be aware of potential traps and this awareness is what I hope to contribute to with this article.

So what did Martin learn from writing this excellent series and how will that knowledge help you as we transition to an environment containing Saviors of Kamigawa as well? That’s what today’s wrap-up article covers, so check it out.

Martin’s been wildly popular with this excellent new series detailing his various builds of Sealed as he grinds through the PTQ season. The last Englishman who made a habit out of writing up his decks for StarCityGames.com qualified… but though it’s obvious that Martin makes two Top 8s, does one of them lead to the big finish? You’ll have to read on to find out.

The fifth installment of this very solid series seeing Martin discuss fetishes, an encounter with Tomi “Mountain Man” Walamies, power vs. consistency, and his latest PTQ adventures.

While waiting for the tournament to begin, my mate Bill Johnston asked which Betrayers common I would most like to open, suggesting it might be Waxmane Baku. Although I hadn’t really thought about this question I said Gnarled Mass without hesitation. I’m not saying that it’s the best common in Betrayers, but Gnarled Mass is just the one that works best for me. So how did I fare at the PTQ with two of Bob Gnarly in my deck? Check inside, friends, check inside.

This weekend, Martin attended three PTQs and won all of them utilizing the power of Takeno’s Cavalry enchanted with Kumano’s Blessing. Okay, maybe that’s not quite true, but he did attend one and he may have had to play against Takeno’s Calvary in round 6 where the winner of the match would make the Top 8.

Two PTQs, two sealed decks, one saucy, one not. Oh, and one burning question: Is Ornate Kanizashi playable in the maindeck in Betrayers Sealed? Did Martin Dingler complete his 1200km trek with a spot on the Pro Tour like Craig Stevenson achieved last week? You’ll have to read it to find out.

Somewhere along the way, a couple of Englishmen got hooked on the idea of building sealed decks and discussing the choices with the readers here at StarCityGames.com. Craig Stevenson’s Sealed Revealed series has built a large loyal following, but today Martin Dingler is here to prove he takes a back seat to no man, Scouser or otherwise, and provides this outstanding article as proof.