"Playing in Pre-Releases: Sealed Fates"

To Mulligan or not to Mulligan?

"Playing in Pre-Releases: Sealed Fates"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.

     Playing in a pre-release is one of my greatest joys. For weeks as a magic player you have been hounding the various spoiler web sites in hopes of getting a glimpse of that one particular card that would change the game , raise the prices of certain cards or immensely improve your current deck or (in my case) decks. This is like attending a Movie Premier only this is way better because it doesn't end in an hour and a half. It is also way more interactive. Plus you get the chance to hold or own that particular card that you have been drooling over for weeks.

    I also call these events the great equalizer. Every one comes in on equal footing.There are no Net decks that could save you here ,there are only concepts and possible interactions that you might have read or imagined doing yourself. Being in a pre-release all boils down to 2 things. Luck and Pure skill. 

     Case in point is Team Virulence's resident Sealed Monster , Neil Umali , the guy always comes up with some really weird decks in  Standard or Modern that ends up on the wrong side of the win column most of the time but he is a different sort of monster altogether in Sealed events. It does not matter if he has Bombs ( Rare or Mythic Game Changing cards like Legendary creatures and so forth ) when he opens a pack.He has ruled the roost when it comes to sealed. He either has tremendous luck or tremendous skill. We suspect he has both.

With that being said there are a couple of things that you need to consider when you are playing in this format:

I knew there was some removal here somewhere....

1) The availability of cards in your pool

This is the part people often attribute to luck and it is a given but this is where serious deck building skills come out. You are given a limited amount of time to include cards in your concept.

When you have opened all of your 6 packs and seperated them by color or mana cost or whatever system  that you have it is now time to look at what you will be working with.

The two predominant colors in your packs should give you a clue as to how you should proceed. The Bombs are less important  , you might have a Tamiyo or Garruk Primal Hunter but all the cards you have are most White or black so what is the point of playing a planeswalker who will not get any color support right?

2) Dominant Colors

Yup...I would really love to play some mountains now....

As a rule of thumb it is always better to play with the most color that you see in front of you.A sea of red cards or blue cards determines a lot if you could support a particular concept. 

2 colors with the potential of splashing  a third color is usually viable in this kind of environment , just be sure to have a good mix of mana or mana fixers (key runes or Clue stones) put in so you can maximize your concept.

Colorless artifacts especially from the previous  sets of Mirrodin and Scars of Mirrodin also provided a great bulk of cards that  could be added to any color. Playing in that Sealed format was great because you had an abundance of cards to splash in any color.

Artifacts that could be used in your concept should not be overlooked because these are things that are not hindered by mana cost.

3) Dominant color Mana Costs 

The Mana Curve is always important in all magic formats more so in this limited format because the faster you could put your threats on the board the better it will be for you. Putting down a creature with every passing land drop should be a great priority especially in Sets that do not feature any major mass removal spell.

4) Creatures Vs.Control

Some people lose control over creatures...

Magic normally has very aggressive creatures in all the mana costs but Red  , Green and White traditionally are the colors with the most aggressive build. 

The kind of cards that you also have will be an important factor. More creatures tend to point   to a more aggressive strategy while having enough  counters , Bounce or Removal tend to point to a more controlled strategy. From my observation the best kind of decks in Sealed  is a mixture of both. 

     The first time I played in a  Sealed tournament I greatly became aware that there are cards that would normally never see standard play but are big Heroes here and later on in EDH decks. There were cards that are tantamount to suicide in standard but mean a matter of life and death here. I also became quite aware of the card pools and there differences when they are in  a New set and a Core set.

    Unlike in Core Set Pre releases where the colors are more or less equally distributed with an abundance of old and new mechanics  , Set Releases like Innistrad or Return to Ravnica tend to push players into specific mechanics or colors ( like the guilds). The latter makes deck building much easier because you only need to support your mechanics or colors. Core Sets offer a lot more options and a lot more tinkering on the players part especially because it is a bigger pool than let us say the 2nd or 3rd expansion of a new set. 

   I might never return to standard or play on a consistent basis soon because of the things that I do at the moment but I am happy that at least I can experience a sealed tournament once every couple of months. See you in the games!