Subject: Sealed Practice Decks Date: Mon, 04 Aug 1997 21:25:39 -0400 From: Sean McKeown I decided to run some randomized Boosters of Mirage, Visions, and Weatherlight just to practice my Sealed Deck skills...I'm pretty weak at actual Sealed Deck events, or my decks just have a demonic hatred of me, you choose... most of my Rares turn out to be stuff like Bazaar of Wonders and other useless stuff =) -------------Try #1---------------------------------------------------------- Weatherlight Bogardan Firefiend Abjure Angelic Renewal Apathy Cinder Wall Dwarven Berserker Fire Whip Razortooth Rats Rogue Elephant Striped Bears Vitalize Aether Flash Cinder Giant Fallow Wurm Heart of Bogarden Visions Sisay's Ring Freewind Falcon Giant Caterpillar King Cheetah Knight Of The Mists Mortal Wound Mystic Veil Raging Gorilla Spider Climb Tremor Vanishing Coral Atoll Longbow Archer Nekrataal Pillar Tombs Of Aku Mirage Bay Falcon Blistering Barrier Disenchant Drain Life Granger Guildmage Incinerate Merfolk Raiders Rampant Growth Searing Spear Askari Skulking Ghost Soar Cerulean Wyvern Flame Elemental Horrible Hordes Teeka's Dragon Some things were obvious at the start.. I have little to no choice but to play Black and Red. Heart of Bogardan, Nekretaal, Incinerate, Drain Life, and fairly good creatures. Not a lot of them though... some 'fatties' like Teeka's Dragon, Flame Elemental, plus my favorites Razortooth Rats and Dwarven Berserker. So I would have to add a color for good creatures. Without the Rogue Elephant, which is even a reasonable choice, Green seems to be best... King Cheetah, Granger-mage, Rampant Growth (!!), Giant Caterpillar, Fallow Wurm (!!) and Striped Bears are great, with a CC of merely 1 Green mana. Except for the 187 Knights, Blue really has nothing going for it except a cheap Landwalker and a Flier with UU in the CC. White has Longbow, Freewind, and Angelic Renewal... nothing impressive, although Angelic Renewal could be promising when used with that Nekretaal. So...sticking to the concept of the 40-card deck, and an unlimited Land supply (Hardly true, but I didn't want to sort through a whole Mirages starter repeatedly to practice like this =), I began to construct. I wish I pulled a Rocky Tar Pit or Mountain Valley, to make me feel better, or even a Gemstone/Paradise. Ah, phooey. Spells: Fire Whip Aether Flash Heart of Bogarden Drain Life Incinerate Rampant Growth I considered Pillar Tombs, but it is just TOO useless in Sealed. AEther Flash made it, because some of my creatures have high Toughnesses (T>2), and if it turns out to be useless, well... into the Sideboard! The Drain, Incinerate, and Whip would be about par, and acceptable. With Heart and Flash, it's just plain WRONG...and I've got a Nekretaal and Fiend in there too =) I'm working off the plan of 18 Lands..so that leaves me with 16 Creature spots. They would be: Bogardan Firefiend Dwarven Berserker Razortooth Rats Rogue Elephant Striped Bears Fallow Wurm Giant Caterpillar King Cheetah Raging Gorilla Nekrataal Blistering Barrier Granger Guildmage Searing Spear Askari Skulking Ghost Flame Elemental Teeka's Dragon Cinder Giant just struck me as the only complete mistake, and I avoid the Hordes wherever possible. Not horrible, but not a good card 9 times out of 10. Critter analysis: Walls: 1 (Blistering Barrier, the big-ass Blocker =) Fliers: 2½ (the ½ being the Caterpillar) Evasive (nonflying): 1 (Razortooth Rats, practically unblockable if you remember that most people don't draft Black because of Warthog/Elephant Grass/Dirtwater Wraith) Toughness 3 or Higher (non-Flashable): 5 (This tells me that, in play, I should hold the Flash until I know what my opponent has critter-wise. Or to reconsider the Flash as a SB-only card.) Creaturekill, point-source effects: 6, counting even the vague damage-dealers like the Whip, Guildmage, Fiend, and Phlegm Elemental. Then, add the Heart of Bogardan and it gets WRONG =) So...that leaves the big decision to be, to Flash or not to Flash?? The Flash might be big, but I think I would have to stick it in the SB just to be safe. Don't want to draw a Flash and a load of */2 critters... I'd play the Cinder Wall instead. Solid Blocker, takes out a lot of creatures in the environment. That makes the Sealed Deck: Razortooth Rats Nekrataal Skulking Ghost Drain Life Incinerate Fire Whip Heart of Bogarden Blistering Barrier Searing Spear Askari Flame Elemental Raging Gorilla Bogardan Firefiend Cinder Wall Dwarven Berserker Rampant Growth Granger Guildmage Rogue Elephant Striped Bears Fallow Wurm Giant Caterpillar King Cheetah Teeka's Dragon (5x Swamps) (7x Mountains) (6x Forests) Time to re-define a 'splash' ;) For Lands, I would choose 5 Swamps, 7 Mountains, and 6 Forests. Probably a bad idea, should go 4-7-7, but I want to have a chance at casting a Nekretaal or Drain sometime during the game, hopefully before it is too late =) I only need multiple mana in 1 Green spell (the Wurm), 2 Red (Heart and Elemental), and 2 in Black (Drain, Nekretaal). Glad I ditched the Pillar Tombs earlier, saves me the time of doing it now ;) Mana should hold up under pressure. The big problem is in getting together !!9!! to cast a Teeka's Dragon, but this creature is HUGE once you get it out. Definitely worth including =) -------------Try #2---------------------------------------------------------- This one seems to be a harder choice, as its got some good stuff but generally crappy Rares.. Daring Apprentice and Doomsday are not terribly strong Sealed cards, unless you are ready to play mostly that color.. Weatherlight Mind Stone Angelic Renewal Fatal Blow Festering Evil Fire Whip Flux Fog Elemental Nature's Kiss Sawtooth Ogre Tendrils of Despair Thunderbolt Arctic Wolves Master of Arms Touchstone Doomsday Visions Inspiration Betrayal Cloud Elemental Fireblast Freewind Falcon Man-O'-War Mystic Veil Quirion Ranger Shrieking Drake Sun Clasp Tar Pit Warrior Brass-Talon Chimera Scalebane's Elite Stampeding Wildebeests Katabatic Winds Mirage Azimaet Drake Benevolent Unicorn Dazzling Beauty Firebreathing Goblin Tinkerer Gravebane Zombie Prismatic Circle Sandstorm Soar Thirst Viashino Warrior Illumination Mana Prism Zhalfirin Commander Daring Apprentice Blue is pretty nice, this time.. some OK disruption via Betrayal, Man-o-War, and Thirst, plus a pre-assembled Flying Beatdown.. Fog Elemental, Cloud Elemental, Shrieking Drake, Azimaet Drake, plus a Soar if I can find a use for it (I dislike creature enchants, unless they are really solid) Red is OK...I got a T-Bolt, Fire Whip and Fireblast as DD, but very few creatures to back it up..so I probably would have to avoid it. We need our creatures! I'm avoiding Black like the plague..I'm not going to take the chance for just an ArmPit Warrior and a Gravebane. That leaves me Green and White.. some OK stuff, especially when used together. A solid Fattie..or 3..is always good, so Wildebeests, Wolves, and Scalebane's Elite are sure-fire winners. Nature's Kiss and Angelic Renewal are great, and Sun Clasp is useful...with it and Man-o-War I have some good Boomerang effects going to slow down my opponent's creatures, and never forget that a Sun Clasped Scalebane's Elite is no easy thing to deal with =) Prismatic Circle is good, especially if my opponent has to rely on one main deck color for damage. That gives me, as spells: Angelic Renewal Nature's Kiss Sun Clasp Prismatic Circle Thirst Mana Prism Betrayal just wasn't good enough for me, and I chose Mana Prism over Mind Stone...I'd rather have the option of un-doing a color-screw, thank you. I didn't want to go too heavily on spells that didn't outright kill stuff, so that I would be creature-poor. MiViLite sealed is just one big creature brawl, after all....... Creatures: Fog Elemental Arctic Wolves Master of Arms Cloud Elemental Freewind Falcon Man-O'-War Quirion Ranger Shrieking Drake Brass-Talon Chimera Scalebane's Elite Stampeding Wildebeests Azimaet Drake Benevolent Unicorn Zhalfirin Commander Daring Apprentice Fits fairly nicely, although I would have rather drawn a, say, Dragon or Asmira, Holy Avenger or Rashida Scalebane or a number of other useful Mirage Rares instead of the Daring Apprentice. An odd mix of fat and thin, with 4 actual Fatties, and the rest being 1/1 or 2/2 creatures with some other useful abilities like Flying, Protection, Flanking and the like. The Wildebeests and Shrieking Drake should do well to reset the Cumulative Upkeep on the Arctic Wolves, as well as provide a meager card advantage by doing so Nothing spectacular, in fact if not for those fatties and the ability to protect them, the deck would probably fall flat on its face. Oh well, make do.. just makes me gladder I didn't actually pay for the cards =) Lands: It's a touch heavy on the Green, with the Beests being 2-caster. I'd have to say, use 5 Forests, 7 Islands, 7 Plains (it has space for 19 Lands, and with the odd colorations and otherwise weak-assed spells, I'd have to say I'd dedicate all that space to mana) Critter analysis: Walls: Depends on what you think of Fog Elemental =) Fliers: 5 (solid! I've had Sealeds with only 1 Flier..) Evasive (nonflying): Depends on how you think of it..between Flanking, Trampling, Protection, First Strike and funky special abilities, I'd say 5. Creaturekill, point-source effects: 1: Thirst. Some Boomerang effects though, such as Man o' War. Not good, but better than the time when my only Creaturekill was a Polymorph. That is NOT creaturekill, I assure you! Oh, well. The concept for this deck would be to delay with the ground forces long enough to kill with the Air Force, or to blaze through with fatties like the Beests and Elite. It's a thinking game, more or less, where you have to try to manipulate combat to your advantage...very hard to play, but a good player could make it work. The Circle will help, although I am kind of partial to the JuJu Bubble myself...or my Sealed fave, Blossoming Wreath. Late-game, expect to see a Nature's Kissed evasive creature, like an Azimaet Drake or (preferrably) a Freewind Falcon (hahaha! Super-Armored Falcon!) to end the game. That makes the Sealed Deck: Angelic Renewal Sun Clasp Prismatic Circle Master of Arms Freewind Falcon Benevolent Unicorn Zhalfirin Commander Nature's Kiss Stampeding Wildebeests Arctic Wolves Quirion Ranger Thirst Fog Elemental Cloud Elemental Man-O'-War Shrieking Drake Azimaet Drake Daring Apprentice Mana Prism Brass-Talon Chimera Scalebane's Elite 5x Forest 7x Plains 7x Islands Weak, IMHO, but not so bad that I couldn't fidget my way through somehow. -------------Try #3---------------------------------------------------------- Yet another exercize in futility..I mean, MiViLite sealed deck =) Only by doing this sort of thing can I hope to prevent future screw-ups... like the time I passed up a Frenetic Efreet and Firestorm Hellkite for a Landwalker theme. This one seems much tougher than the last ones... choosing a color won't be simple.. Weatherlight Mind Stone Betrothed of Fire Choking Vines Kithkin Armor Lava Storm Llanowar Druid Mana Chains Phantom Wings Redwood Treefolk Rogue Elephant Shadow Rider Hidden Horror Mischievous Poltergeist Serra's Blessing Well of Knowledge Visions Goblin Swine-Rider Death Watch Fireblast Jamuraan Lion Keeper Of Kookus Mortal Wound Remedy Righteous Aura Rock Slide Tremor Wake Of Vultures Brass-Talon Chimera Heat Wave Shimmering Efreet Rainbow Efreet Mirage booster Dwarven Nomad Ekundu Cyclops Femeref Scouts Jolt Mtenda Herder Pacifism Regeneration Sabertooth Cobra Sandbar Crocodile Teremko Griffin Tranquil Domain Ersatz Gnomes Mtenda Griffin Suq'Ata Firewalker Zuberi, Golden Feather Talk about some decent Rares... I have a Flying Phatness effect going for me, with a Rainbow, Shimmering, Zuberi, and 2 Griffins. Throw in Serra's Blessing, and we are talking **STRONG** =) so I think White is a given...as it also has Pacifism, Jamuraan Lion, Righteous Aura, Remedy, and some other tricks up its sleeve =) Blue: Rainbow Efreet, Sandbar Crocodile, and Shimmering Efreet are nice. Not much else though...a Splash color if at all, for the Efreets and Sandbar. Black...tempting! Wake of Vultures, Mischevious Poltergeist, Hidden Horror, and Shadow Riders... if I play B/W/x, I can have a damned near unstoppable air force as well as a solid ground force of Scouts, Horror, and Riders. Red: Heat Wave is exceptional damage. In the late game, they might as well concede.. a STRONG card, definitely. Rock Slide and Fireblast help out with creaturekill, Ekundu Cyclops, Swine-Riders and Keeper of Kookus are OK creatures (I like to nibble at my opponent with the Swine-Riders, just to demoralize them... once did 7 damage to my opponent with one before they managed to off it or find a blocker that would live =) Pretty good, definitely to be considered. Lava Storm could change the game, as could Rock Slide. ( OK, I'd probably have to shoot myself for not playing Red :) Green: Another possible Splash color. Mortal Wound, Redwood Treefolk (bad but big), Rogue Elephant, Choking Vines are all to be considered. I'll work this one differently, since I have so much nice stuff. I'll assume 17-19 Lands of whatever I need (Wrong in Sealed, but so what? Too lazy to generate whole STARTERS of Mirages =), and see what space I have after Spells before I decide to splash. Spells: Lava Storm Serra's Blessing Fireblast Rock Slide Heat Wave Pacifism Remedy Creatures: Goblin Swine-Rider Jamuraan Lion Keeper Of Kookus Brass-Talon Chimera Dwarven Nomad Ekundu Cyclops Femeref Scouts Mtenda Herder Teremko Griffin Ersatz Gnomes Mtenda Griffin Zuberi, Golden Feather Too creature-weak, and that is including Filler like Ersatz Gnomes. What color has the most creatures of worth?? Green is weak.. Treefolk, Rogue, and the Poison creature. Next... Black is risky, but I have the creaturekill to avoid the Wraith and Warthog. Easily enough =). Too many BB-casters to really expect to use as a splash. Blue has probably the best choices of all, with 2 more Fliers and a Fat Phaser in the Croc. I'll stick with Blue. Flying wins games. That gives me: Lava Storm Fireblast Rock Slide Heat Wave Goblin Swine-Rider Keeper Of Kookus Dwarven Nomad Ekundu Cyclops Jamuraan Lion Femeref Scouts Mtenda Herder Teremko Griffin Mtenda Griffin Zuberi, Golden Feather Pacifism Serra's Blessing Remedy Shimmering Efreet Rainbow Efreet Sandbar Crocodile Ersatz Gnomes Brass-Talon Chimera 4x Islands 7x Plains 7x Mountains Sure, I can hardly ever expect to have UU available until about midway throught the game...with only one Rainbow Efreet, I wouldn't worry too much about that.. the rest is solid enough to make the Blue Hammer work for me whenever I may be able to cast it and keep it alive. Creature analysis: Walls: 0 (Good! I don't like Walls unless they say 'Sunweb' across the top) Fliers: 5...very nice ones, I might add. Evasive (nonflying): 5, of various and sundry talents =) Cutest part is the Dwarven Nomad and Jamuraan Lion...both are great tools for sucessfully manipulating combat situations to your advantage. Creaturekill: 4 Kill effects, one negation (Shimmering Efreet) **STRONG!!** ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Always willing to learn from those who know better! Hope I amused you... --Sean McKeown Gandalf@BDominia.com "Look up to the bright blue sky, Can't you feel life passing by? If you could wouldn't you, Try to soar over everything? All the pain this world can bring, Once I flew now I've lost my wings" --White Town, "Once I Flew" by Jyoti Mishra