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By: rogueeffect, Richard Carpenter
May 20 2009 12:29pm
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Growth as a player, as a person is always a precarious balance considering most of us live in a world with a significant other, work, and the various other chores of life. There is always one more thing that needs doing and it prevents you from putting serious time into what many of us consider a hobby. When I manage to avoid those tasks the first thing I often lean towards is playing magic. I'm Richard and at best I'd describe myself as a magic enthusiast, have not made the time to have high level success although I've have 5-1 days before scrubbing out at GP MTL and regionals, and tend to play as much as I'm able to on MTGO without putting more than 20$ into it a month.

 

In other words I'm just another voice in the room standing on my soapbox trying to point out why I think I'm smarter than the average player. Truth is I am not, but I often see a lot more mistakes on display in other people's games and figure pointing out my own could help more than a few people.

 

Being the enthusiast that I am, I don't test matchup's for 20h before making determinations I have to go with my gut most of the time and I'd be hard pressed to write about anything not related to standard. That being said anytime a new set comes out I try and get in as many sealed events as possible - with Alara Reborn coming online shortly I wanted to talk about a recent sealed pool that I almost misbuilt.  I was able to realize there was more power to harness than I thought and considering the pool I was very fortunate.

 

My Pool:

Shards Cards:

White:

Battlegrace Angel Elspeth, Knight-Errant Knight of the Skyward Eye Welkin Guide Angelic Benediction Guardians of Akrasa Invincible Hymn Gustrider Exuberant

Green:

Topan Ascetic Court Archers Court Archers Soul's Might Soul's Might Lush Growth

Red:

Resounding Thunder Resounding Thunder Bloodpyre Elemental Jund Battlemage Magma Spray Incurable Ogre

Blue:

Fatestitcher Jhessian Lookout Cancel Vectis Silencers Sphinx's Herald

Black:

Bone Splinters Undead Leotau Scavenger Drake Resounding Scream 

Artifacts:

Relic of Progenitus Obelisk of Esper Obelisk of Bant

Land:

Bant Panorama Naya Panorama

Multicolor: (This section will repeat potentials)

Naya:

Rip-Clan Crasher

Bant:

Rhox War Monk Deft Duelist Deft Duelist Hindering Light

(Esper):

Deft Duelist Deft Duelist Hindering Light

Grixis:

Goblin Deathraiders

Jund:

Jund Charm Sprouting Thrinax Goblin Deathraiders Rip-Clan Crasher

Start by analyzing the Shards Component (in particular your mono-colored cards).
 
I had visions of serving up tasty exalted treats, with so much shroud and exalted I figured I’d have 3/2 first strikers swinging until I could get Elspeth or Battlegrace online and have double life-linked monk swinging on occasion – it helped that I already had a couple of fixers. But the red did look strong if I wanted to go Naya – at least the last 3 packs would determine where I head as I figured it automatic to have a white base considering the 2 Bombs that I got in white. I wouldn't mind playing Jund charm either because I expected to see a fair number of blades played.
 
My three rules to Sealed Formats:
  1. Know Your Bombs
  2. Know Your Removal
  3. Balance Your Mana, and Don't Be afraid to be Greedy.
Finish by taking Alara Reborn and factoring that into your base decision.

With Alara Reborn you're going to be flooded with a combination of gold cards that make deciding your colors all that much harder but exposing just the Shards should give you a strong idea of the colors that will define where you look first.

Alara Reborn Cards:

Borderposts:

Firewild Borderpost Firewild Borderpost Fieldmist Borderpost Mistvein Borderpost

Naya:

Naya_Hushblade Leonin_Armorguard Vengeful_Rebirth Knotvine_Paladin Bant_Sureblade Sigiled_Behemoth Marisis_Twinclaws CrystallizationCerodon_YearlingCerodon_YearlingViolent_Outburst Violent_Outburst Mage_Slayer Sigil_Captain Captured_Sunlight Captured_Sunlight

Bant:

Lorescale_Coatl Sovereigns_of_Lost_Alara Talon_Trooper Ethercaste_Knight Knotvine_Paladin Bant_Sureblade Sigiled_Behemoth Marisis_Twinclaws Crystallization Unbender_Tine Glassdust_Hulk Glassdust_Hulk Offering_to_Asha

Jund:

Maelstrom_Pulse Terminate Terminate Jund_Sojourners Jund_Sojourners Vengeful_Rebirth Monstrous_Carabid Breath_of_Malfegor Violent_Outburst Violent_Outburst Mage_Slayer Dragon_Appeasement

Grixis & Esper: Lost Causes - I'll merge as I know I wont be playing them now.

Grixis_Sojourners Architects_of_Will Mask_of_Riddles Deny_Reality Illusory_Demon Vectis_Dominator

It helps that that was my third pulse of the afternoon (2 in my fatpack) so I'm just amazed at the options before me. Originally I build a Bant deck thinking that I want to have the easiest mana base possible with access to panorama, obelisk, borderpost but is that the right way to go with this pool?

I rebuilt the pool pushing the bant only cards aside and assumed with Naya panorama and 2x borderposts (R/G) I could take the risk and try a Naya/Jund concoction that was heavy on removal. My 40 ended up being: 

 

It helps that that was my third pulse of the afternoon (2 How did it fair?

 

The short answer would be 3-0-1 and I split the finals but it more or less went like this:

 

Round 1: Nick S.

 

Nick was playing 5 borderposts and was flooded a fair bit - I watched him win the next two rounds quickly with realm razor - its a good thing I always had removal up for him and won on the back of the angel both games we played. (I think he cut one of his 14 lands the after the round when we discussed his land flood issues).

 

Round 2: Peter W.

 

Peter was playing Esper and flyers but I always had removal for them netting 2 for 1's with Jund charm both games and being able to lay beats with the angel. Both games I ended with Pulse in hand.

 

Round 3: Jeff M.

 

Jeff was playing Jund and in game one he blistered out some beats before I stabilized and won with the Angel. Game 2 I had a bout of mana troubles not hitting a green source until I scooped. The third game saw me replay the angel and wipe his board with Vengeful Rebirth. A cycled thunder a few turns later sent me to the finals for a split.

 

Keys to Victory all day for me was being able to consistently find ways to get 2 for 1's (or better) and not struggling as I think the mana base was at tight as I could make it.

 

Impressions:

 

   1. Borderposts are as good as lands, with their inclusion Naturalize is an automatic maindeck. The fact that they turn on Blades is gravy.

 

   2. Vengeful Rebirth is a card worth splashing for - it allowed me to recycle Battlegrace on occasion and its ability to dome for 5+ off the cyclers is amazing.

 

   3. Slave of Bolas is also a card that must be played if you can manage it, it causes so many issues.

 

   4. Token producers are not as good as they used to be, in particular Jeff's use of Goblin Assault made me feel like he was playing with a dead card - there's more ways to handle the producers including Zealous Persecution.

 

   5. Jund Sojourners is a surprise hit netting you the "Zap" effect and I enjoyed responding to Fleshbag with it.

 

   6. The format now has multiple answers to Martial Coup which has to be a good thing.

 

Enjoy your release events everyone.

 

Richard Carpenter

 

rogueeffect on MTGO.

8 Comments

I'm very afraid to play by quetzilla at Wed, 05/20/2009 - 21:07
quetzilla's picture

I'm very afraid to play borderposts in the first turns of the game because getting one zapped can be crushing.

I've been playing a lot of ALA=ARB sealed in pre- and release events and one thing I've noted is that 2 drops need to be really damn good to warrant being in the deck. Knight of the Skyward Eye makes the cut as he's practically a 5/5, but most others I won't bother with... Rip Clan Gnasher especially. He might get in once on turn 2 but after that he's mostly dead as the big green monsters come down (I have seen maybe 1-2 decks not playing green in all my sealed experience).

So my overall advice is pretty similar:

#1 - Play your bombs - other people will play theirs, so you need some to match up or you won't win packs

#2 - Play your removal - with the caveat that ideally it should be in your bomb colors, and you don't want to play bad removal in place of good creatures

#3 - Play large monsters - If the best you've got is steel-clad serpent, then play it. Everyone else will have large monsters so you need to have your own or you won't win packs

#4 - 2 drop creatures need to be really good or just don't bother.

And a final note... Deadshot Minotaur is really good, I had 2 now in my latest sealed and they were excellent all event. (My Ajani Vengeant and Lord of Extinction helped out too :).

I really don't agree with you by Anonymous (not verified) at Wed, 05/20/2009 - 21:57
Anonymous's picture

I really don't agree with you about not playing 2 drops. Alot of people don't realize that Reborn has increased the speed of the format and getting down early pressure can sometimes just overwhelm your opponent. This applies alot more to draft than sealed since in draft you really can't play a slow deck anymore but it still holds true in sealed. Sure you're not going to play Rip-Clan but I almost never played it before since it is just a terrible card after turn 2. However there are decks where it's decent in but usually hard to cast two drops are just bad. I'm assuming you include the blades as playable of course.

Well I just got owned by a by quetzilla at Wed, 05/20/2009 - 23:42
quetzilla's picture

Well I just got owned by a putrid leech, but in general I still think random 2 drops are not a good idea. Other formats I've felt that you really need to play 2 drops even if they're just 2/1 dorks, but here I think they really need to deserve the slot.

Ive done 3 of the ala/reborn by me myself and i (not verified) at Thu, 05/21/2009 - 00:24
me myself and i's picture

Ive done 3 of the ala/reborn sealeds and gone 3-1 3-1 2-2. I have found that 2 drops are the key to winning. obv not ripclan, but the blades for sure, and i have found that the 2/2 whitered vigilance haste guy isnt horrible. Of course it all depends on your deck

In my limited experience by phil (not verified) at Thu, 05/21/2009 - 06:11
phil's picture

In my limited experience 2-drops are /very/ important in A/C/R draft. I often find myself in situations where I have a bomb (Broodmate, ...) in hand and am dead before I can assemble the mana to cast it because of a number of incredible two and three drops. I think the most essential part (even more than usually) is /not/ sticking to fatties on the crappy side (e.g., steel-clad) but to watch out for the curve, and, if nothing else works, go super-agressive. I have been known to play steel-clad on occasion in A/A/C, but I think I will never again. I think this is going to be the rare case of a draft format where decent but hard-to-cast bombs are sometimes picked below nice cheap dorks. I know I will try.

I was only talking about by quetzilla at Thu, 05/21/2009 - 18:52
quetzilla's picture

I was only talking about sealed, draft is a whole different story.

Vengeful Rebirth by Anonymous (not verified) at Thu, 05/21/2009 - 11:17
Anonymous's picture

Have to agree with you on this card. It's very strong - at least in Sealed.

Vengeful Rebirth by rogueeffect at Thu, 05/21/2009 - 11:33
rogueeffect's picture

Yes much like Kiss, Rebirth really is a limited card - I don't think its just Sealed.
The fact that you can land cycle any of a number of cards (including fiery fall) - and get 6 damage out of rebirth to get a card back that can again do more means it will always have a place in any Naya/Jund deck that I have and 95% of the time be splashed otherwise.

I have to agree the format for sealed is faster than it used to be - you have to curve out much more fluidly than any block I have played in before.