Thursday, January 30, 2014

Struggling with sealed during prerelease. We are here to help!

As I mentioned in my earlier post about prerelease this weekend, the format of this weekend is sealed.  What is sealed you ask well, lets ask my past self what it is.

"Sealed is a format in which you will be given the product to play in these events. The rules of sealed is that whatever you open in your packs can be used in your deck.  A sealed deck should contain 40 cards, 22-24 non-land cards and 16-18 lands, depending on your deck." - Matt Britten of 24 hours ago

*Phew!* That was hard to get that kid back here to describe what sealed is.  Even though you know "what" sealed is doesn't mean you full understand the concept of it. So buckle up and get ready, we are going to explore the format so that you are ready for this weekend.

So in the previous article, you are going to get your seeded prerelease pack from your event location.  The seeded pack comes with: one custom pack which is depended on what color you chose, two Born of the Gods booster packs, three Theros booster packs, and many goodies.

Depending on what colors, you could do different strategies.  I would recommend going with a strategy that you are most comfortable with: aggro -> mid range -> control. Aggro or "Aggressive" decks want to win with value creatures and destroy your opponent fast. Mid range decks can withstand agro decks to a point where they just run out of gas and you take over the game.  Control decks have cards that we call "permission" cards, this means you are playing cards that tell your opponent what they can or can not do, so in sense, they have to ask permission to play Magic.  The colors that are ordered from aggro to control are as follows and the promo rare that comes with that pack to help you decide:


So pick the BASE color of what you want to play, then take into consideration what will be your complement color.  Your complement color or colors should be ones that help you along your strategy: aggro -> mid range -> control.  **Be Warned.**  The seeded pack is based off of your original color. There is probably three different seeded packs per color so there are 15 different packs. Some of those packs maybe great, some could be just garbage.  If you do get one of those garbage packs, you will be basically building your deck off of five packs instead of six and probably switch to a strategy that you are not comfortable with.  **End Of Warning** 

After you pick your color and your event organizer says open your packs and start building, it becomes crunch time. So, when you open your packs, organize your cards to six different piles, these piles will represent the five colors of the color wheel: white, blue, black, red, green, and the sixth pile will be multi-color and artifact cards since there are so few of them.

Then, after you spread out your piles, lets take a look at these cards, we need to figure out what cards are bombs, to playables, or just garbage and we can just throw them right in the trash can. NO!! Please don't do that I was joking. :)  If you pull a god out of your packs, congratulations, take a lap around the tables and high-five your friends!

What is considered unplayable?  Cards that cost to much for what you want them to do, or cards that their abilities that will not help you advance the state of the game to help you win.  For example, Nyxborn Shieldmate, a one mana 1/2, yes you can bestow it to give a creature +1/+2 but that is pretty much it, it will most likely be used to "be thrown under the bus"

When actually assembling the 40 card deck, it is very important to have a good curve. A curve is the theory of when you want to play cards based off of the converted mana cost of card.  This is also connected to the synergy of the deck, or how cards interact with each other.  For the hyper aggressive lists that you want to play the highest costing card should cost four mana, control decks can have higher casting spells because they are going to play a lot more lands.  They can not miss a land drop at all.

Couple of the big BOMB rares and mythic rares that you should keep your eye out for, except for the gods: Brimaz, King of Oreskos, an excellent three mana creature that just bring the BEATS on your opponent.  Felhide Spiritbinder, a four mana that just allows you to put copies of any creature you control, even itself! So you are saying for 2 mana, "if it becomes untapped", i get another 3/4? YES SIR!  With the speed of this format, you will be attacking with this card all, day, long.  Also, if you are running a deck with a lot of burn spells, Satyr Firedance is a pretty good card, but can be easily taken care of.  Scourge of Skola Vale, a three mana creature that just gets bigger over time and tramples over.  Herald of Torment, also another three mana 3/3 evasion that can actually help you lock the game in by bestowing it on a creature giving it flying.  Ok the last color bomb is blue and I want to say is just ok but may be considered a board-wipe would be Whelming Wave.

One thing to keep in mind when playing with Born of the Gods, the removal in this set is OFF THE CHAIN!!  Black has removal that is great in sealed and in constructed when playing at home or when you go to an event.  Drown in Sorrow is functional reprint of Infest but with the upside of scry. Red as another sweet card, Searing Blood, a card that you use as removal or trying play it so that there one creature just can't block. Also this card makes combat difficult to calculate for your opponent.  THEY GAVE US A REPRINT THAT I AM JUST WAY TOO OVER EXCITED FOR BUT I'M TALKING ABOUT IT ANYWAYS!  Revoke Existence!  This card is perfect for this set and the entire block.  I'm officially calling the card "The cheap godkiller."  Any white deck will be playing this card mainboard, guaranteed!  With this block having a lot of creatures that are enchantment and having cards that are great equipment, this card will see lots of play both in sealed and constructed Magic.

Well, we went over a lot of information for you to go over before your weekend.  If you have read the previous post about the guide about playing in the tournaments and keep in mind the tips and tricks you learned from this article, you will go far and become the prerelease champion!

What are some other topics that you want us to talk about or some videos you want to see happen.  You can contact us at mtgplaymatt@gmail.com and be sure to follow us on Twitter @mtgPlayMatt and our PlayMatt Facebook site.

Hope to see you around. This is MTGPlayMatt - Bringing the information of Magic to you so that you can enter the battlefield prepared.

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