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By: MarcosPMA, nn
May 27 2014 12:00pm
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Hello and welcome to another edition of Sealed Success!  GP Atlanta happened this past weekend and if you didn't check it out I'd recommend going to the Twitch archives and watching footage from the GP.  It was Theros Block Sealed/Draft and it gives us insight into what people are building in their pools and what color combinations stand out from over the course of 8+ rounds.  As for myself I only caught a bit of the sealed part of Day 1, I went to a Modern tournament and a Standard tournament after that and that took up most of my day, but I did get to watch the drafts on Day 2 and learn a lot about the format and reinforce what my drafting philosophy is (draft green).

I want to talk today about something that I talked about in a previous video, and that's what each color wants to do and what creatures are good for that color.  I remember talking about the difference between Great Hart and Returned Centaur and how I thought Great Hart was unplayable while Returned Centaur was playbable to me even though they are both 2/4s for 4.  It may just be my preference, but I like my black decks in Theros block to be defensive, have removal and use late game spells to win the game.  On the other hand, my white decks want to be aggressive and have evasion, neither of which I want a Great Hart for.  Since a Returned Centaur will block pretty decently when it comes down on turn 4, it's a fine play for me when I'm playing black because that's what I want to be doing in black, but if I play a Great Hart in white, it would have to be a defensive white deck rather than a regular white deck. Returned Centaur

 

So what does each color want to do?  Red and White both want to be aggressive, they both have creatures with the Heroic mechanic and have creatures that are better in the early game (2/1s, 2/2s, 3/1s, etc) than they are in the late game.  The creatures are cheap and usually have Heroic, so you want to be targeting them sooner than later, which leads you to a Voltron type strategy in order to take advantage of the Heroic triggers.  Red has early game removal in Fall of the Hammer, Magma Spray, Lightning Strike, and Magma Jet, but not much towards the late game, so it really wants to end the game sooner rather than later.  White has some late game removal Banishing Light, Excoriate, Vanquish the Foul, but doesn't really have good late game threats, just some 3/X evasive creatures and 3/5s and 2/4s past 4 mana.

Blue wants to take advantage of tempo plays: Voyage's End, Triton Tactics, Griptide, Hubris, Retraction Helix, to race the opponent with small evasive creatures.  It's not as fast as red or white, but can play a better late game due to the plethora of bounce spells it has.  Blue isn't aggressive by nature, so most of your early creatures are better suited for defense while your midgame creatures can fly over and hit your opponent for 2-4 a turn.  The creatures you get are bigger as the game goes on, so while you're stuck with 1-2 power creatures early on, you can usually play 4-5 power creatures once you get towards 5-6 mana.  Blue can play an early tempo game or hold out to the late game where it can use its tricks to win races.

In an ideal Black deck, you want to be devoted to black.  Disciple of Phenax, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, and Marshmist Titan are all good reason to be play as many black mana symbols as possible, and not only that but you get access to great removal in Feast of Dreams, Asphyxiate, and Sip of Hemlock, giving you many tools to interact with your opponent as possible.  Outside of minotaurs, you're not really an aggressive deck and definitely want the game to go late.  Your card quality goes up as the game progresses, and your early creatures are more defensive by nature, so the color is clearly meant to go late.  Pharika's Chosen, Baleful Eidolon, Returned Phalanx, (Servant of Tyramet) are all cards that you're likely going to play in your black deck, and it's going to make it more defensive than anything else.

Lastly, green just wants to beat down with efficient creatures at every drop.  Nessian Asp is still one of the best green commons and some decks just can't beat a 4/5 for 5 that can become an 8/9.  Green goes big naturally in a format with Voltron due to Monstrosity, so it can keep up with the rest of the format quite easily, whereas other decks have to do more to do what green already does.  It has the most enchantment removal, which incidentally just acts as regular removal most of the time.  The enchantment creatures in the format are naturally a little bit better than they would be otherwise.  For instance, Nimbus Naiad and Leafcrown Dryad are much better than Wind Drake and Grizzly Bears, even if you're casting them wihtout Bestow. Your green decks can either be offensive or defensive, the color plays both roles well and its flexibility is what makes it quite powerful in this format.

Now, that's just a summary of what each individual color wants to be doing, it doesn't take into account what its role is once it gets paired with another color.  At that point it comes down to what both colors do well and how your making your deck, whether it's in draft or in sealed.  What do you think?  Do you think I have each color down correctly, or do you differ in what you want each color to do?

With all that said, let's crack some packs!

Sealed

Conclusion

Looking back on it, I'm still not in love with my sealed pool, and I'm not sure what I could have done differently to make a better deck.  There is the thought to just play a W/x deck and try and get there with Wingsteed Rider and Akroan Skyguard, but that strategy is more fragile now in full block sealed than it was in BNG/THS and THS sealed.  There's a lot more ways to break up an early Voltron (Magma Spray, Voyage's End, Hubris, Feast of Dreams, etc).  We could go UW or WR, but UW doesn't have meaningful plays outside of Rise of Eagles and Arbiter of the Ideal, and RW has to depend on an early creature with Ordeal of Purphoros, or try and hold on until we can cast Forgestoker Dragon.  Another problem is that a lot of our creatures are X/2s.  They won't be able to trade with 3+ drops, and they can easily be killed in combat by any creature our opponent has.  Add to the fact that white wants to be aggressive in this format and we're clearly not a good aggressive deck, it just spells disaster for us no matter what we do.  Our G/B/r deck faces the same problem our white creatures do (X/2s), but has a saving grace in actual removal.  Our creatures are mediocre, but Feast of Dreams, Asphyxiate, Pharika's Chosen and Keepsake Gorgon allow us to have some game against bigger creatures and hopefully buy time for our red cards to pull out a victory.  In the end however, the lack of meaningful early plays hurt us a lot and we couldn't catch up and ended up finishing with a 1-3 record.  I guess the lesson to take from all this is that even though sealed is slower and your opponent won't usually curve out on you, if you don't have a way to interact in the early game you're going to be in for a rough time.

As always, if you have any comments, questions, or concerns please leave them in the comments section below.  If you'd like, you can check out my Tumblr and YouTube using the links below.  Once again, I know it's a long ways away but I'll be putting a reminder at the end of my articles for you to think about who you'd like to nominate for the Magic Online Community Cup!  I know several writers from this website have represented the community and I'd like that trend to continue.  Let your voice be heard!  Pick someone that you feel has made Magic Online better, and/or someone who actively strives to make the Magic Online experience better for all users.  If you care about Magic Online at all please nominate someone that will represent what the community wants from Magic Online.

Thank you reading/watching!

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2 Comments

That was a pretty tough pool. by IYankemDDS at Wed, 05/28/2014 - 11:04
IYankemDDS's picture

That was a pretty tough pool. Since none of the colors seemed particularly strong, I think I would have went U/R because then you at least have access to your powerful 6-drops. The only time I played Pharika was in a nutty Constellation deck where I also had Doomwake Giant. Of course, making a bunch of Sedge Scorpions is pretty good.

I was able to play in a PTQ last weekend in Denver. I thought my pool was pretty good, but I went 1-2 drop anyway. I won the first round, played and lost to a great deck in Round 2, and then flooded pretty badly Round 3. I played GWu, splashing for Kiora and Ephara's Enlightenment. I also had the Charioteers, Broodmaster, and Fleecemane Lion.

With the Limited Championships coming up, I think my Sealed play is winding down for this Block.

Thanks for the article!!

Yeah, UR might have been by MarcosPMA at Sun, 06/01/2014 - 03:58
MarcosPMA's picture

Yeah, UR might have been better, but I don't think I would have done any better really.

Sorry about the beats, sometimes you open a good pool and just lose anyway. It happens. Pool sounds really good though.

It's winding down for me as well, I'll still do my weekly Sealed but I haven't been in love with draft since Born came out and there's no more PTQs in Theros Block so it's somewhat of a dead format for now. I'm ready for either some Vintage Masters Sealed (if they offer it), or just M15. Might have to get a M14 Daily going and see if I can shake things up a bit.

Thanks for reading!