First Worldwake Sealed Pool

The plan was simple.  Join the first Worldwake sealed Swiss event I could find, open some good cards, 4-0 the pod and write about it.   Parts went well.  Parts - not quite so well.  I did join.  I got cards.  Let's take a look.  Rather than show the entire pool at once, I broke out the colors, and split them into two piles.  The left side are the cards that I am excited about.  The right side - not so much.  The splits are not perfect - some cards are marginally interesting, or not really bad, but this was my initial take.  Please don't get too upset to find playable cards in the "bad" pile.  Many of these would make the deck in many cases.  That does not make me excited about them.

I welcome comments about my choices.

White: White has a few - very few - strong cards.  Refraction Trap  is damage redirection, so it can usually save one of your guys are kill one of theirs - or just kill your opponent.   Apex Hawks is a Wind Drake, or a flying Hill Giant, or an expensive Air Elemental.  Always solid, if you are heavy white, and a decent splash if you need evasive guys. Hookmaster is fine in any aggressive deck.  It is a bit less exciting in a controlling deck, but it is never bad. I also have two white cards - Join the Ranks and Ondu Cleric that are good if I build clerics, but not too hot otherwise.

 I dismissed White almost immediately.  The cards just are not there.  Specifically, the color has weak tricks and no removal.  I need more than that from a playable color.   

Blue: Calcite Snapper is an improved Horned Turtle.  I love the turtles - they hold the ground while you win through the air.  It's what blue does - and they are even better in the fast Zendikar format.   Unfortunately, blue does not have a lot of fliers that can sail over for the win.  Wind Zendikon is a flier.  That's the only blue flier.  Two fliers in all of white and blue.  Sigh.

Blue is highly unlikely to make the cut, at least as a main color.  It might make the cut as a splash.  Mysteries of the Deep draws three cards - so there is a slim chance I could splash for it and the Zendikon.  Unlikely, but not impossible. 

Black:  Okay, I'm starting with a bomb.  Sorin Markov is fine, provided I can play black.  I also have two solid removal spells.  Hideous End and Tomb Hex both kill things quite well.  Dead reckoning is more questionable, since you need a good creature in the graveyard.  Still, it seems good (especially since I had already seen some good fat creatures in red and green.  The only downside for black is a lack of solid creatures.  In sealed, in this block, a Swampwalker seems good, especially since Quag Vampires can often be a Bog Wraith or better. Quest for the Gravelord is on the wrong side.  It's exciting. Grim Discovery may well be playable, if I have a Quicksand or something like that.  As simple Raise Dead, it is nothing much.  However, if I can bring back both a creature and a reasonable land, it's card advantage, and can make the deck.

I will be surprised if black is not a main color.  If not - considering I have a great Planeswalker and solid removal - it would only be because I am doing a victory lap over my green.  That seems unlikely. 

Red:  Hellkite Charger!  Another bomb.  A bit of foreshadowing - Charger won almost every game it appeared in.  the downside - on two occasions, it did it while wearing a Vapor Snare. Two cards are on the wrong sides - I think because of a misclick before I took the screenshot.  I am not yet sold on Skitter of Lizards.  Skitter is either a Raging Goblin, a Goblin Chariot or - well, I could list a whole bunch of creatures I never like playing.  Goblin Shortcutter is likely to make the cut. Just one burn spell?   Just one?

 The red looks fine.  I would love a few more burn spells, but it is not bad at all. 

Green:  The green is solid, if unspectacular.   I am uncertain about the Craw Wurm Zendikon.  It is huge, and powerful, but I have never been that excited about Craw Wurms, even in M10 drafts.  On the other hand, if I'm green, it will almost certainly make the deck.   Well, probably.  The biggest downside is that green has nothing that could kill an artifact or enchantment. It has one trick, but that trick - Vines of Vastwood is not splashable. Explore is a decent card, but it is best in a fast green deck with lots of landfall.  In this deck, as a splash it is the equivalent of an off-color cycler.  Meh.

I did not discuss allies much in the above lists.  That's because I pulled some of the allies out to show separately.  Here they are, along with a couple playable artifacts.  Pilgrim's Eye is insane in sealed.  It is a flier that fixes colors.  It will make almost every deck.  Hedron Rover is a 4/4 for 4 on the attack, and will generally make most decks.  So, on to the allies.

After digesting the above, I built a straight RB deck with a heavy allies theme.  The deck also ran my Dread Statuary - a colorless manland that becomes a 4/2.  Here's that build. 

The deck has a number of allies, but few of the pumpable allies - the guys that get +1/+1 per ally.   It is also very short of removal or evasion, aside from the bombs.  

I also built a RBg deck, adding the Territorial Baloth, Grazing Gladehart and Graypelt Hunter.  The green gives me some extra fat and an ally that grows.  I took out the Ruinous Minotaur , because the deck does not like losing lands, the Skitter of Lizards, and the Unstable Footing.   That makes the dec three colors, with only the Pilgrim's Eye to fix the mana.  :(   The three color build also had to drop the Dread Statuary, since I could not fit a colorless land in a three color build.  The three color build did play my Khalni Garden, the land that produces a 0/1 token.  Not a happy trade for the manland, but better than a forest much of the time.

After a lot of consideration, I played the RBg build.  The RB did not seem fast enough, so I wanted the extra power of the green ally and fattie. 

On to the tournament.

Game one began reasonably well.  My opponent was a bit mana screwed, and next turn was looking good. 

This turn, I swung with the 4/4,  and he locked the Graypelt under Paralyzing Grasp on his turn.  Hellkite Charger hit the following turn, and promptly died to Hideous End.   We swapped cards and creatures back and forth, and wound up with him at one life, and me at four.  He had one card in hand, and 2 2/2s in play.  I had two blockers, plus a couple tapped attackers. 

Next turn, he played the new Jace, bounced my guy, removed the other blocker and swung for the win.  

Sigh.  He needed to topdeck removal, and he did. 

Game two I won.  Nothing special - my deck was fast, he was a bit mana screwed.

Game three I was mana flooded.  Nothing special - just a loss. 

I could recap the event in detail, but suffice it to say that the Hellkite won four games.  In each case, it was wearing a Vapor Snare at the time.  I would keep checking the sideboard and hoping for something that could kill an enchantment, but I have nothing in the pool.  

Quag Vampires was amazing all day.  I was especially impressed by the opponent that played one as 1/1, another as a 2/2, and a third - a foil - as a 3/3.  He then used Aether Tradewinds to bounce the 1/1 and replay it.  I died to those swampwalkers. 

The results were, frankly, dreadful.  I haven't gone 0-3 drop in a sealed in a long time - maybe never.   I have now. Sigh.

Some conclusions.  First, most of what you learned from playing triple Zendikar still applies.  Vampire Nighthawk is still good.  Speed, especially in the form of 2/1s however, is a bit less relevant.  The format is now full of 3/3s, and the 2/1s die much more easily.  (This applies to drafts, too.  I may have imploded in this event, but I have won two drafts, and would have won a third had I not misclicked and pinged my own pinger.)  The Zendikons are good, especially the ones with evasion.  Finally, artifact and enchantment destruction is great, because the format has a ton of common and playable artifacts, as well as the Zendikons and a bunch of other good enchantments. 

Try the sealed events.  So long as you don't 0-3 them, you can at least break even.  Probably.

GL

Pete Jahn

"one million words" in the queues.