Sealed Deck Tips

artificer · Joined: 07 May 2006 Posts: 66

For experienced player that knows the vast majority of cards is really easy to spot the cards they should choose on sealed deck tournaments but it is not for new players. Could you please provide general tips about what kind of spells should we pick? Please don’t answer with card names since the idea is to get “general tips”. Also tips should not be very complex since the time given to deck building is relatively short.

Lovecraft · Joined: 15 Mar 2006 Posts: 15

Well, for inexperienced players i would suggest playing a 40 card deck with 17-18 lands, 14-16 creatures and 7-8 non-creature spells. That´s simple and usually works just fine.

A creature you play should have at least the same power as its converted mana cost, or some decent ability that justifies its higher mana cost. Its hard to say in a simple way what kind of abilities are good but just try to think about what kind of an impact the creature has on the game in some situation and decide if its worth for the mana cost.

Play MORE cheaper creatures. If all your creatures cost 4-5 mana or more you wont get to play any of them before the opponent has simply played too many cheap creatures that your bigger creatures cant handle.

For a non creature spell you want to have something that can get rid of your opponents creatures in some way. For example burn spells, spells that simply destroy creatures and Auras that prevent creatures from attacking and blocking are usually great. Instant spells that give your creature(s) something like +3/+3 or First Strike will do the trick most of the time too.

gypsy · Joined: 15 Jun 2007 Posts: 904

in shadowmoor sealed i usually sort all my playables by colour with the hybrid cards in between each colour then i see which colour has the most depth and synergy then lay out the cards by casting cost so i can get a feel for the curve of the deck. if its not like a ptq or something i try to get other good players opinions on cards im not sure about, removal is rly good in sealed as is any combat tricks like giant growth effects

coolcreep · Joined: 18 Feb 2006 Posts: 364

Sinse sealed is a slower format than draft, you can typically have a slightly higher curve than before, and you can also have a slightly weaker manabase in order to play your bombs. A bomb is anything that, as soon as you play it (or perhaps the turn after you play it) instantly swings the game in your favour. Examples of this would be Oona, incremental blight, mass calcify, or knollspine invocation. Big creatures, if they have good abilities such as flying, can also be considered bombs. A good example of this would be the 6/6 flyers from back in Planar Chaos, or knollspine dragon in this format. As someone mentioned, removal is *extremely* important. Chances are your opponent has at least one or two creatures that just win the game, and you need to be able to deal with them in order to win. Don't just fill your deck with high cc cards and removal, however. If you dont play anything until turn 5 and your opponent curves out, it doesnt matter how good your cards are. As for general tips about THIS set... The 3/3 cycle i alluded to is very good if you are on colour, the WG, RG, and WU common enchantments are *extremely* powerful if you have enough creatures with both colours, and you should not have to go 3 colours in this set due to all the hybrid cards, in fact even mono is possible sometimes. Generally, the strongest combos are UW, then GR, then GW, however with the right cards any combination or single colour can take down a tournament. If your pool doesnt have any bombs, just make a really low curve fast aggro deck, and hope to win die rolls and catch people on their toes. Other than that the only thing that can help you make your own card evaluation is to practice.

XSquad · Joined: 21 Aug 2007 Posts: 21

I noticed in Shadowmoor that the sealed mechanics for Shadowmoor really are different from the other sets (Lorwyn-Morningtide, TSP block). The major difference is Shadowmoor is really low on hard removal (spells like terror, kills something) and kill spells in general. Usually, you want a deck with a lot of low-costing creatures, but in Shadowmoor it is probably better to go against this dogma and make at least a third of your creature pool full of bombs and big creatures. In Shadowmoor, you can more easily get away with bomb spamming than in other sets. Try to go dual colored as much as possible, three colors is always difficult, even more so with the lack of vivid lands to help you out.

Perry · Joined: 08 Sep 2004 Posts: 14

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/sw63
-Very basic overview

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/sw83
-A walk-through for a 9th sealed. The kind of decisions made here are the same kind of things that you do in a SHM sealed, although it is much simpler because of the set.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/qm5
-Similar to above, but more complicated because it is not a base set. Still, the method of evaluating the pool is similar.

artificer · Joined: 07 May 2006 Posts: 66

Thanks a lot