Advice on practicing sealed.

thedarkness · Joined: 13 Jul 2006 Posts: 552

So, for years now my biggest gripe with Magic has been how much I suck at limited formats. I've never denied that a large part of the reason why I'm so bad at them is simply that I never play them, and more important at higher levels, never practice them. So IN THE INTEREST OF SCIENCE, and maybe for the invitational on Sunday, I was wondering if anyone had any links and/or advice on draft picks, gauging card power in a sealed pool, deck construction, and all that. I'm aware of some resources, like reading articles on wizards.com and SCG, but I'm about to go to bed and I'm hoping to wake up to some new ideas to try out over the next few days.

If anyone does post a link, please include what it is and how to use it if it isn't self-explanatory (for clarification, a list of articles is self-explanatory, while a hand generator is useless to a limited newbie). Ideally, this thread might become the inspiration for a stickied compendium of Getting Started With Limited Magic.

MarkovXII · Joined: 11 Jul 2005 Posts: 90

the wizards limited articles and forums is a good place, they talk about alot of real obvious stuff but stick with it and read the whole thing and there are a few gems throughout

gypsy · Joined: 15 Jun 2007 Posts: 1671

the only real way is to just play limited

GoneBananas · Level 1 Judge Joined: 09 Dec 2006 Posts: 328

you can talk to me, i r teh proz

JA0 · Joined: 16 Jul 2006 Posts: 52

this more applys to drafting but still is a major key in limited,

remember the word Bread

B-bombs
R-Removal
E-evasion
A-Aggro
D-Dregs

that will help alot, if you build your deck in that order. but remember to try to balance your deck.

other then thats its just lots and lots of practice.

thedarkness · Joined: 13 Jul 2006 Posts: 552

Shooter · Level 1 Judge Joined: 11 Mar 2005 Posts: 160

Build decks, not piles of good(?) cards.

Hmmmmmm · Joined: 27 Sep 2004 Posts: 13

the BREAD thing definitely applies to Sealed more than Draft.

Synergy needs to be thrown into the draft one somewhere.

And yeah, like 2-3 years ago I asked PV this exact same question, and what he told me was 'Build real decks, not piles of cards.' (Exactly what Shooter just said)

P_P4E · Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 579

I actually think you dont have to play any limited to understand limited. Same applies to any "on the fly" games, I.E. fantasy sports drafts. If you understand where things are supposed to go, how good they are and what they work well with, you don't actually have to play.

Sealed I would say is actually very easy and doesn't require any practice if you know what the format is. Listen to pro's talk about it and simply just copy their philosophy completely. MBS-SOM is a slow format, so build accordingly. Also play whatever bombs you get, etc.

If you have a terrible sealed pool, something that happened to me in one prerelease (best cards were 2x myrsmith) then you're obviously screwed... but I used these opportunities to try stuff out. Maybe rock a 4 color deck, maybe just throw all your 7 drops in there and see what happens, etc. If its at a GP or PT or something, then I really dont know what to tell you as I do not compete on that level.

enfinit · Joined: 16 Feb 2010 Posts: 33

BREAD i feel is more about draft...

Plus in sealed you have to look for where you have the most synergy. The bomb isn't worth anything unless you have the numbers to back it up.

Plus there was a recent article on magic.tcgplayer.com
talking about how bread isn't as good a strat with scars and besieged since they are one of the most synergistic limited sets in a long time. You can't take the best dinosaur, best infect, and best metalcraft and hope to have THE best deck you could have.

but yeah

magic.tcgplayer.com
mananation.com
channelfireball.com
02drop.com
starcitygames.com
mtgsalvation.com

I also believe if you download mtgo you can watch and review sealed winning decks and draft decks from free. I like to just sit and smoke while I watch sealed and draft in action. Cause I don't always have the money, I mean magic-league.com hello. lol.

gypsy · Joined: 15 Jun 2007 Posts: 1671

GreenBear · Joined: 27 Jul 2010 Posts: 488

If you can afford it modo is really good for limited play.

thedarkness · Joined: 13 Jul 2006 Posts: 552