Subject: Sealed Deck choices for Critique (LONG) Date: Mon, 23 Mar 1998 01:19:45 -0500 (EST) From: Erik Lauer To: Frank Kusumoto People have posted various randomly generated card lists and the decks they would build out of them. I think it could be interesting to compare the decks different people would build from the same card lists. Here is a card list Mike Rose gave: Land Forest x4 Island x5 Mogg Hollows Mountain x4 Plains x4 Scabland Swamp x5 Artifacts Coiled Tinviper Squee's Toy Black Abandon Hope Bounty Hunter Clot Sliver Dark Banishing Darkling Stalker Dauthi Ghoul Dauthi Horror Dauthi Slayer x2 Diabolic Edict Dread of Night Endless Scream x2 Fevered Convulsions Imps' Taunt Kezzerdrix Marsh Lurker Reckless Spite Sarcomancy Servant of Volrath Blue Capsize Counterspell Horned Turtle Rootwater Hunter Sea Monster Shadow Rift Shimmering Wings Steal Enchantment Thalakos Sentry Time Ebb Twitch Winged Sliver Green Broken Fall x2 Crazed Armodon Harrow Heartwood Dryad Heartwood Treefolk Muscle Sliver Seeker of Skybreak x2 Skyshroud Elf Skyshroud Ranger Skyshroud Troll Spike Drone Trained Armodon Verdigris Red Aftershock Crown of Flames Havoc Lightning Blast Mogg Fanatic Mogg Raider Mogg Squad Renegade Warlord Rolling Thunder Sandstone Warrior x2 White Anoint Armored Pegasus Circle of Protection: Blue Circle of Protection: Green x2 Circle of Protection: Red Circle of Protection: Shadow Circle of Protection: White Clergy en-Vec Cloudchaser Eagle Knight of Dawn x2 Master Decoy Mounted Archers Orim's Prayer Pacifism Soltari Crusader Soltari Foot Soldier Soltari Monk Soltari Trooper Talon Sliver First off, I would like to thank Mike for including the land in his post. Some people do not include the basic land, but it is an important part of the deck. Mike ends up deciding on this deck: Creatures: 17 Dauthi Horror Dauthi Slayer x2 Dauthi Ghoul Darkling Stalker Bounty Hunter Kezzerdrix Soltari Foot Soldier Armored Pegasus Master Decoy Soltari Trooper Soltari Monk Soltari Crusader Knight of Dawn x2 Mounted Archers Cloudchaser Eagle Spells: 8 Lightning Blast Pacifism Dark Banishing Diabolic Edict Fevered Convulsions Reckless Spite Endless Scream x2 Lands: 16 Scabland Mountain Plains x6 Swamp x8 Total Cards: 41 Here is the deck I chose: Land: 17 Mogg Hollows Mountain x6 Plains Scabland Swamp x8 Artifacts: 1 Coiled Tinviper Black: 14 Bounty Hunter Dark Banishing Darkling Stalker Dauthi Ghoul Dauthi Horror Dauthi Slayer x2 Diabolic Edict Endless Scream Fevered Convulsions Kezzerdrix Marsh Lurker Reckless Spite Servant of Volrath Red: 8 Aftershock Lightning Blast Mogg Fanatic Mogg Raider Renegade Warlord Rolling Thunder Sandstone Warrior x2 Here is my reasoning: By playing two colors I can play more double colored spells and still not have as many mana problems. Also I am playing a higher mana ratio (17/40 instead of 16/41). The inclusion of double red spells allows the game decisive rolling thunder as well as the very powerful sandstone warriors. Note that I do play multi-lands just to get more red mana in the deck -- this allows me to have a great deal of red and black mana (8 each!). While I do not get the white weenies, the red creatures are still quite efficient, and I end up with a better overall mana curve (since I have a couple good 1 mana weenies, giving the opportunity for a very fast start). Clearly the tin-viper is no knight of dawn, but with 7 white mana sources in Mike's deck, a knight probably comes out around turn 5 or 6... I sometimes play clot slivers, but this deck has enough 2 mana creatures - and the sliver was the less efficient than the shadows. I chose to only play one endless scream -- while it can be very powerful (hence playing 1), it is not really needed and sometimes can sit in your hand -- and other times it allows your opponent to gain 2:1 card advantage. In any event I think contrasting the two deck designs can give some insight into how different people play sealed deck. Feel free to send me any comments / constructive criticism. Erik