Need a little help

[Captain Caveman]

I'm going to play in a Sealed Tournament this weekend and I
was wondering if some of you might have some advice. I'm
sure a persons success depends on what cards you get but are
there some general guidelines to follow? I've only played this
type of tournament two other times and I didn't do very well.

I think someone started a thread about this topic not to long
ago but I didn't read it because I rarely do this kind of thing.
What are some of the power cards? Is skywing good in sealed?

I think we get one Odyssey Sealed deck and 3 Torment packs.

Thanks,
Caveman

 

[Hetemti]

It's limited. All about the creatures. And pulling the right bomb.

 

[Spiderman]

You might want to check the front page for Isty's article on drafting; while you're doing Sealed, you're probably still looking for the same things (Isty and Gizmo have been wrangling back and forth in the replies to the article though, so hopefully you don't get too confused if you read them).

This was the format for the Torment Prerelease side event and black has some good stuff. Creatures with flying and tricks (like Faceless Butcher) are good to look for. Then fatty creatures and removal spells. Try to stick to two colors. I usually try to go for 15 or so creatures, 17 land, and the rest spells to make a 40-41 deck. And try to watch the mana curve

If you have to register decks and have a time limit, when you open, sort into color immediately and just check off your cards. If you're trading decks anyway, reading them doesn't matter and if you aren't trading, you can still skim them (if you don't know what they do already) while you choose the colors you're going into.

 

[rkoelsch]

Spidey has given good advice. I think it is important in sealed to have an open mind. Sure black has a lot of good stuff in the set but your cards might point in another direction. I also don't think there is one optimal build of any sealed deck. It should be tailored to your play style. If you are comfortable in a beatdown mode try not to build a control deck. I think sealed is a lot more tactical than stategic. You need to know how to make good plays with suboptimal cards. Good luck. You have posted some good decks so I think you will do fine.

 

[Istanbul]

I'm sorry, but it's my belief that with 3 Torment packs...unless your packs miraculously contain garbage for black, it should be at least one of your colors.

Blue and red are usually good backup colors, providing bounce and evasion (blue) or decent creatures and enough burn to destroy a city (red). Green and white can be okay, but lean towards not being so...and going green/white is the equivalent of death.

 

[Spiderman]

Not so... I couldn't finish it out, but I went that way for my Prerelease and went 2-0 for rounds and something like 5-1 or 5-2 for matches (see my Prerelease post for details). When I had time to look at it, I should have gone black/white in retrospect, but depending on your cards, green/white is not automatic death.

 

[Istanbul]

Okay. To be fair, NO color mix is automatic death.

But it *will* be a severely uphill battle. Spidey, you must have gotten an optimal mix for those two colors.

 

[Spiderman]

Well, as I said, I think going black/white would have been better. But I did have Shelter, the card you advocate taking, whether it's in your color or not (although it never came up). You'd have to see my decklist in that post I made.

 

[rkoelsch]

What i do is generally look at Blue/White first if it is not good then I start searching unless I open a bomb in another color. I know how Blue white works and the interactions of cards. It is what I am comfortable with. But what works for me doesn't work for everyone.

 

[Captain Caveman]

Does this sound about right?

23 spells and 17 land
or
22 spells and 18 land

13 to 15 of the spells should be creatures. Try to use the ones
with flying and/or other forms of evasion. Stick with two colors
if possible. Even if that means using spells of inferior quality?
(Is that right?)

If we get 3 Tormant packs look at black really hard. Can you meta
game that and play black hate instead? Since everybody else
will be thinking black.

Thanks for the help,
Caveman

 

[Istanbul]

In my experience, 23/17 works pretty well, unless you have a lot of high casting cost stuff; if your average spell costs 3 or 4 mana, you might go 23/18.

Use beef first. Big bodies are cool.
THEN use evasion, flying, fear, etc.
You want about 15 creatures, though it's okay to go as low as 13 if you have a bunch of really good tricks, or as high as 17 if you have very few good tricks.
Define 'spells of inferior quality'. Don't use Impulsive Maneuvers if you go red/black just because it's the only card left.
Don't be afraid to splash a third color...LIGHTLY. Remember that if you splash a color in, you don't want more than one or two cards of the splashed color, and will want to run one land of the appropriate type per card splashed in.

It's almost impossible to hate-draft. Don't bother. Stern Judge is neat if you can support it, but don't count on it.

 

[Gizmo]

The really different thing about Torment limited from other limited formats, is the impact of threshold and flashback.

Threshold has the effect of making you WANT to run cheap cantrip effects that do little more than draw you a card, simply because they quickly get you to Threshold. In Torment limited, for instance, Peek is a gimme - you ALWAYS play Peek because it draws a card (added consistency) gives you information (nice) and it gets you closer to Threshold (BONUS!). Cards like Peek, Predict, and the Eggs are all valuable... it can even go so far as to make cards like Accelerate playable if your deck is particularly Threshold-heavy.

Flasback has the effect of making you want to play extra land, as you HAVE things to do with your lands numbered 5-8, which is cast your Elephant Ambushes and Chainers Edicts again. If you find you dont have many flashback spells then NOTICE that fact and factor it into land calculations, and possibly consider running 17 land,

For most people the calculations for Torment SEALED (not necessarily so for booster) begin from a three-color base with 18 lands. If you decide to play 2-colors then probably you`d begin from 17 lands (which is why booster is different, as you try to draft 2c decks). So your basic landbase is 22 spells with 18 land. Ok into that factor how many EARLY cantrips you have. If you are running 3 you can cut to 17 land, if you are only running 2 then its a borderline decision.
Also consider how many cards you have that you can turn additional landdraws into... as was the case with Masque`s Spellshapers additional landdraws are rarely wasted in Torment limited as you have Mongrels and the like to use them with, not to mention the bombs of Compulsion or Narcissism (make no mistake, these cards are bombs, particularly Narcissism). If you have a few of these cards then this is another reason to run 18 land to better avoid a screw, and then simply convert later land draws into other effects.

Personally in SEALED I virtually always run a 3-color deck with 22/18. If I got a strong 2-color deck I`d almost certainly run 23/17 and try to cram in some sub-optimal cantrips.

 

[Gizmo]

Oh, forgot to clarify something. I emphasised the word EARLY cantrips. Shelter costs W1 but isnt an early cantrip, because it`s something you hold waiting for an optimal time to play it... whereas Eggs, Peeks, Predicts etc are all early because you can play them out ASAP to just draw cards and cycle through the deck.

 

[Spiderman]

I only did the Prerelease so this is just one experience, but I really only got one or two flashback AND threshold cards in each color. Hence, I tried to include them (Acorn Harvest, Spirit Flare), but I never really used any except for Acorn Harvest (and I think that was only because it was cheap).

My first opponent who was running a 5 color deck reached threshold fairly quickly in one game, but I don't think it had THAT much impact on me. Mainly because my Graceful Antelope was shutting down his mana , but also I guess I had the upper hand or answers for whatever he did. My other games with him and other opponents didn't last long enough to reach threshold (or we just had so many permanents on the board and not in the graveyard because of stand-offs).

I remember someone saying black would be prevalent; I think that might have prejudiced me into not playing black, one of my stronger colors as it turned out. But I did have Stern Judge and that did win me a couple of games as all of my opponents had some black component in their decks.

 

[Captain Caveman]

Ok,

I'll try to sum up what all of you have said to make it easy for me
to remember.

23-22 spells
17 land (18 land with Torment discard enchantments U, G or W?
and flashback)

17 creatures, if possible(choose beef first, then evasion)

The other six slots should be removal and cantrips

Don't_play_hate! (sideboard!)

"Light" splash 3rd color if the cards support it.

Can someone tell me a few common and uncommon bombs that
are not burn in nature.

1. U, G, W(?) Torment enchantments???



Is that about right?

Thanks,
Caveman

 

[Major Crime]

When I have played sealed, I normally play the colours which have given me the most creatures. May check to see if red has a lot of burn, if have a lot of creatures in one colour.
Flyers are the best to go for, then general 2 to 4 cc creatures.
But note I only play for fun and confusion of the oppenent.

 

[Spiderman]

Cards I found in my sealed stuff:

Black

Chainer's Edict (U)
Faceless Butcher (C)!!!

White

Shelter (C)
Mystic Familiar (C) (not really a "bomb", but for just two mana it's a flying 1/2. Plus a threshold ability that could be considered good against black)

I didn't have any white enchantments, just Primal Frenzy for green, and Aboshan's Desire and Ghostly Wings for blue (which aren't bad but that wasn't one of my colors).

 

[Istanbul]

Non-burn common and uncommon bombs in Torment:

WHITE:
Hypochondria (very strong in the right circumstances)
Strength of Isolation (trust me, Holy Strength + Pro. Black = good)

BLUE:
Balshan Collaborator (in blue/black, he's psychotic)
Breakthrough (amazing card-drawing mid-game)
Compulsion (search + threshhold machine = very good)

BLACK:
Faceless Butcher (duh)
Carrion Wurm (hi, I'm HUGE)
Chainer's Edict (duh)
Grotesque Hybrid (trade for your best creature?)

RED:
Pardic Collaborator (crazy in red/black)
But if you're playing red, you play burn. Plain and simple.

GREEN:
Basking Rootwalla (he's just too good!)
Arrogant Wurm (it's big, it tramples, it can come out cheaper than is reasonable)
Narcissism (This thing is SICK)

 

[Captain Caveman]

"But if you're playing red, you play burn. Plain and simple. "


Ya,...

I'll play burn if it comes to me but I wasn't sure what cards are
good when playing sealed. I never really play in this type of
tournament. Often times I will overlook things that everybody
else knows is "da Bomb". It happen once in a boost draft and I
caught some flack over it. They were all good players and didn't
like me passing "bombs" to my right and left. Needless to say,
it was a bad experience. Maybe I can get better in this type of
tournament. I get to build a deck out of the cards that are given
to me.

My Sealed experience:
1st: loss first round
2nd: loss second round
3rd: we'll see


Thanks for the info,
Caveman

 

[Captain Caveman]

I went,......I saw,......I lost!


I went into this tournament expecting to do well. I had what I
felt was good advice but the outcome was the same. On the
way back home I thought, I'll post may cards and see what
everyone else though I should have played. But the more I
looked at the cards the worst I felt. I mean, how could I have
not built a better deck? It easy to second guess yourself but
man, I'm kind of disappointed in myself.


There were two guys that were quite abit better than everyone
else but the rest of us were all about equal. Atleast, that's what
I believed. The finals came down to those two guys and I was
quite surprised by the outcome. I was pretty sure who was going
to win. He had a really good deck that could achieve threshhold
by turn four almost every game. He had so many good cards it
wasn't even funny. The card drawing was awesome and he
could sift through his deck to find an answer to about any threat.
He only lost three games the whole time. One was a flook and
the other two came against the tournament winner. Two straight
games. It was unreal.


No matter the outcome it was a learning experience and I came
away with two good rares and a few useful uncommons.

My two good rares: ?

Nantuko Shade
and
Grim Lavamancer


Thanks for the help,
Caveman

......maybe next time.....