Fragoel2's picture
By: Fragoel2, Fragoel2
Nov 02 2010 2:25am
0
Login to post comments
1711 views


Hello everybody and welcome to the third article of this series. At the end of my last article I showed you the pool from my first Scars of Mirrodin Sealed, now in this article I will show you how I built my deck from that pool. First of all here's the pool again: 

First I did what everyone does first, sort by rarity and check if I got some sort of sick bomb My rares and mythics were: Quicksilver Gargantuan, Darksteel Juggernaut, Ezuri, Renegade Leader, Grindclock, Kuldotha Forgemaster and (Hand of the Praetor).  To my disappointment  I didn't get anything worth tickets and, while I got some playable rares, not even some sick bomb. If I'll play blue I will certainly run the Gargantuan and the Juggernaut will probably make the cut. (Hand of the Praetor) and Ezuri might be useful if the pool does have enough support cards but that's not my case with only an handful of infect creatures and a few elves. This also ruled out any possibility of an infect deck as wasn't even close to he minimum threshold of infect creatures needed to play that deck. 

I then began to scan each color, removing any unplayable or unexciting card.

After all those considerations here's what's left from my pool:

 It's now time to analyze each color:

  • Black seems a bad collection of fillers, with the only exception of Necrogen Scudder. Instill infection is nice but it's not a true removal spell, while Flesh Allergy has two downsides: the sacrifice and the double black in it's cost. If I really have to play a color just for a couple of removal spells and a solid creature I have better options in the other colors.
  •  One of those colors is White with Arrest, probably the best removal spell in the format, and Dispense Justice as standouts. The Sunchaser and the Glint Hawk are solid guys but still the color lacks some depth.
  • Red offers Galvanic Blast and Shatter as options for removal and, well, that's it, the rest is just filler. Still, I'd rather play red than black.
  • Green has interesting options: Slice in Twain is a cantripping removal spell, a great card to have in your pool and thankfully I even got two. Then there's the best replica which is in fact another removal spell. Bellowing Tanglewurm is another card I'm happy to have, even if I probably have only one more playable green creature and I won't actually benefit from it's second ability. Still I think that and evasive 4/4 for five is fine and even considering  that Intimidate is a weak form of evasion in this format it's big enough to punch trough most creatures. Carapace Forger is at least a solid guy, since he is able to trade with most two-three drops of the format and gets really good when you can turn it's metalcraft on. Then, there's a lot of combat tricks that I could play if I have to.
  • Blue is by far the deepest color. Volition Reins and Quicksilver Gargantuan represent the bombs of my sealed pool, even if both are a tad expensive. It has some fine creatures with double Neurok Invisimancer and Sky-Eel School providing evasion, Trinket Mage for a little bit of card advantage and Vedalken Certarch is really really good if I can reach metalcraft easily. Then there's Stoic Rebuttal, a spellbomb and some proliferate stuff I really don't see myself playing in this pool.
  • Finally there's Artifacts.  (Darksteel Juggernatut) it's nowhere near bomb status but it's certainly playable. The same doesn't apply to Kuldotha Forgemaster since I don't have any artifact worth tinkering. Among uncommons I received a couple of Darksteel Sentinels. I'm honestly unsure about that card since it has some powerful abilities but it's mana cost is really hefty. Trigon of Rage is great in an aggro deck but not so good otherwise. I got a really good equipment package in double Sylvok Lifestaff, (Accorder Shield) and Bladed Pinions (there's also Infiltration Lens but that card seems unplayable to me). Other notable cards are two mana myrs, Chrome Steed, Snapsail Glider, the pesky Perilous Myr,  two blue spellbombs and two Wall of Tanglecord.

Now that I analyzed the pool I know one thing for sure: there's just no way I can play an aggressive deck. I have a pretty high curve, I lack good efficient cheap creatures and I have very few removal. Can I play the control role then? I think I can, hiding behind Wall of Tanglecord, playing my few removal spells to deal with whatever can punch past the wall, keeping thing sin check with the aid of Certarch and Stoic Rebuttal and gain bits of card advantage with stuff like Trinket Mage, Darksteel Sentinel, Volition Reins. Once I'm in control of the game I can win with my evasive creatures that should have little troubles in getting damage in. Can this work? I don't know, it's not the best plan ever but at least it's a plan and gives my deck a direction, and that is much better than playing an unfocused deck.

I quickly made one possible build of the deck: 

With this build I maximize the number of available removal spells but of course I have to run an awkward manabase in order to do so. I decided to play only a single Darksteel Sentinel since I'm unsure about the card, to play both (Silvok Lifestaff) instead of Bladed Pinions or (Accorder Shield) since it is tutorable with Trinket Mage, helps me in the early game with the three life points and later it speeds up my clock when I equip an evasive creature. I also included a single Flight Spellbomb since, even id I won't have much use for it's ability, I wanted an extra artifact for metalcraft and a way to draw a card with the Trinket Mage

While this build provided me with the maximum raw power it has a horrible mana base and in a four round event I did not want to try to mise every single game. A stabler build, that sacrifices some power for consistency is the following:
 

It has a way more stable manabase and Slice in Twain is more in line with the control philosophy of the deck since it isn't a one fro one trade but also nets me a card. Still, this build might have some problems in dealing with non-artifact threats as, except for Volition Reins, it only has artifact removal. Thus I decide that I would run the UG build and then switch to the Uwr one if I faced a deck with a lot of non-artifact threats.

Wondering how did I perform? I will only write small recaps of the games as this article is already quite long and I don't want to split it into two parts.

Round One

In the first round I faced an BG infect deck. The first game is not even close as Wall of Tanglecord is not very good against infect and I can do nothing to prevent a Tangle Angler to wreak havoc on my side of the board. He also has some nice rares in Nim Deathmantle and Chimeric Mass. I decide to switch to the UWR build for the second game, since I need ways to deal with his infect non artifact creatures. I get a very good draw game two, with all my colors into my opening hand, two pieces of removal and Invisimancer and Sky-Eel School to outrace him. Third game I keep a sketchy hand with Wall, double lifestaff, two of my three colors but no third land. I find out that he also changed his deck and switched to a white-green metalcraft aggro build. I struggle to stay in the game and in the last possible turn I draw the mountain I needed. This is the board situation:

I  drop the second lifestaff, equip both to the Perilous Myr and then kill it with the Galvanic Blast when he attacks me. This way I deal with his Skyguard and get back to six life. This is the only time I had to cast a removal spell on one of my creatures in a limited game!

I managed to slowly get in control of the game and win it, mostly thanks to his split between infect and non-infect creatures that allowed me to deal with only half of his army at a given time.

Round Two

In the second game I have a second turn Wall but he answers with a second turn Myrsmith. I don't have ways to deal with it and the board quickly deteriorates. He adds a (Precorsur Golem) to the table to make things even worse and I can't draw one of my Slice in Twain but I still manage to stabilize at four life. Too bad that he has a Galvanic Blast for the win. In the second game I have two lands and a myr as my only mana sources and he screws me with a Contagion Clasp and then takes the game a few turns later with Precursor Golem into True Conviction

His deck was insane with stuff like double Galvanic Blast, Mimic Vat, Trigon of Corruption among the others I already mentioned.

Round Three

My opponent has a nice RG deck, with plenty of Myrs and some good beatdown creatures. In the first game, thanks to the insane mana acceleration of myrs, I have to face a metalcrafted (Ezuri Brigade) followed by an active Tower of Calamities. No, I didn't win this game but I  managed to win the other two when he had slower starts. One interesting point was in game three when I could counter with Stoic Rebuttal a Myr Reservoir that would allow him to chump every turn with a Palladium Myr and thus stop my aggression but I to not do so since I remembered that the gameplan of my deck is to win with evasive creatures that could get past the myr. 

Round Four

I have to face yet another Green aggressive build, this time coupled with white. He has very little action game one and I quickly take the lead and the game. In the second one I again manage to stop his aggression but he assembles the Cystbearer-Heavy Arbalest combo. Thankfully he's quite low on life so he's still forced to make some bad trades that allow me to get him in the end.

So, in the end I managed to go 3-1 with this pool, losing only to the guy with the insane deck that would eventually win the whole thing. I'm pretty happy about this result as I think that this was a difficult pool to build. I'll leave you with some totally unsorted closing thoughts:

  • First, I think that I misbuilt my pool. I actually never cast Bellowing Tanglewurm, sometimes because I missed the second forest, sometimes because I had way better things to do. I should have started Carapace Forger in his place and always boarded it in after round two. The Forger is easier on my mana and is another early drop to help me stabilizing in the early game.
  • Darksteel Sentinel is quite good. Flash plus Indestructible means that you will always get a creature of your opponent team by casting it mid-combat. 
  • Quicksilver Gargantuan is a really fun card, not only it does have a powerful effect but it also forces you to think on what to copy with it, evaluating all the available options.
  • The Juggernaut is fine, not broken but fine. it provides some kind of inevitability to deck like this one and demands it's toll each turn. 

 Thanks for reading!