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By: MarcosPMA, nn
Mar 31 2016 11:00am
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Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Sealed Success!  This weekend is the Shadows over Innistrad Prerelease, so that means it's time for the SOI Sealed Set Review!  Before we get into that, let's not forget that Modern flashbacks are still going on Magic Online so that means that last week I got go draft Ravnica/Guildpact.

Ravnica/Guildpact Draft

I started off "missing" my first pick, but we ended up drafting Dimir anyway (which was what I wanted to first pick in the first place) and somehow got back to the finals.  I figured Dimir was what I wanted to draft going into the draft since it felt you could draft a good control deck and deck your opponent with one or two mill effects.  This time in the finals our opponent had a great deck and we weren't able to do anything about it as we got steamrolled very quickly.  Can we keep the success in Ravnica going?  Find out next week when we add Dissension to the format!  With that said, let's begin the set review!

Shadows over Innistrad Mechanics

Skulk

Skulk reads: This creature can't be blocked by creatures with greater power.  Without looking at the cards this infers that creatures with skulk have low power because it wouldn't be too strong on creatures with big power since the range of creatures that could block it is much bigger.  Skulk on a 1 power creature is close to unblockable as we're going to get, but having 1 power isn't worth much if you're wanting to attack to win a game.  What if you have lifelink, or you have a way to boost the creatures power after blocks are declared?  This makes Skulk a bit better, although I imagine that won't be the cause most of the time.  I think Skulk will work out to where Skulk creatures can get in chip shots here and there or be good with equipment/auras that encourage a creature to deal combat damage to get an effect.  Skeleton Key and Invocation of Saint Traft are cards that work great with creatures that have Skulk.  1 power creatures that can block well are actually a bit better in this set since they'll be able to block any creature with Skulk (unless that creature has 0 power).

Delirium

Delirium reads: If there are four or more card types among cards in your graveyard...  Delirium is a tweak on Threshold, a mechanic that made cards better once you had seven or more cards in your graveyard.  Delirium can make some cards better, such as Descend Upon the Sinful, a six mana wrath that gives you a 4/4 angel if you have Delirium.  Some cards are detrimental for you to have unless you have Delirium, such as Mindwrack Demon, a 4/5 for four mana that makes you lose four life every upkeep unless you have Delirium.  In most instances, Delirium is upside to cards you want to play, but there are cases where you need Delirium to make the card playable.  The set has ways for you to achieve Delirium, so I wouldn't worry too much about getting there.

Investigate

When you investigate you put a Clue token onto the battlefield that you can sacrifice for 2 mana to draw a card.  A lot of cards in Shadows have this mechanic, which suggests to me that this format is going to be grindy in Sealed.  Since it does cost you mana to use these Clue tokens, and some cards give you Clue tokens but have a high converted mana cost, the only way for them to see play is if you can go long in games.  Clue tokens act as a mana sink and give you better draws as the game goes on.  Possibly the best part of Investigate is that it's mostly free on cards you'd play anyway, so you don't have to go out of your way to get the Clue tokens.

Madness

I actually did a video about this, so here you go:

Double-Faced Cards

Double-Faced Cards are back and they're pretty fun to play with.  The front side is the side you start off with, which will be either okay to pretty good for the mana cost.  Once they transform they'll usually transform into something bigger and better, so you want to flip them as soon as possible. Werewolves will usually flip back and forth early on then settle into their back side for most of the game once both players are top decking.  Each player has some control over when the cards flip, making it exciting and somewhat frustrating to play with the cards.  In general you'd like to on the play when playing with these cards so you have the best chance for them to flip right away.

Shadows over Innistrad Sealed Set Review

Conclusion

Just by looking at the set I can see that there are some clear archetypes laid out for the 2 color combinations:

  • RB Vampires
  • UR Madness
  • UB Zombies
  • GW Humans
  • UW Spirits
  • UG Clues
  • GB Delirium
  • RW Aggro/Vampires/Humans
  • RG Werewolves
  • BW Spirits/Skulk

BW and RW are a bit less clear to me, but their respective enchantments (Behind the Scenes and Nahiri's Machinations) give you an idea of what is going on there.  The set looks fun and I can't wait to open packs and start building sealed decks.  I feel the format is going to be grindy with the expectation of red based decks which may be slanted heavily towards being aggressive.  Dead Weight is likely one of the best removal spells in the format since it kills a thing and helps with Delirium.  I may be producing additional videos for SOI so if you want to see them you can watch them in my Youtube channel.  

If you have any comments, questions, or concerns leave them in the comments section below!

Thanks for reading/watching!