PREPARING TO RISE
Okay, so this week we are looking at one of the sets that arrived during the lock down and for some of you it will be the first time you have got a Zendikar Rising Prerelease pack in your hands.
For many it has been a while since you built a deck for a sealed event. Here is a bit of recap on building tips and what to expect in this set.
First things first: crack open those booster packs! Then, you'll have a stack of cards.
So . . . what now?
It's time to build your deck, of course!
Sealed Deck is a little different from normal deck building. You get to build a deck using only the cards in front of you, plus as many basic lands as you'd like. Also, unlike a normal Constructed deck where the minimum deck size is 60, you only need to play 40 cards.
The first thing you're going to want to do is figure out a method to pick which colors you'll be playing. I recommend playing two colors and about 23 spells. (Though that gets a little tricky in Zendikar Rising, as I'll explain shortly.) You can sometimes "splash" for a third color, but in general, you'll want to pick two to be your core.
Some things that may draw you into specific colors are:
A really strong rare you're excited about
Plenty of "removal" cards that can deal with your opponent's creatures
A lot of playable cards in that color
A good "mana curve" in that color—meaning lots of creatures of different costs
Ideally, the colors you pick will have all four, but if two or three of those are true, that's plenty good.
Now you have your colors down. From there, how do you take everything you have and figure out which 22–23 cards you're going to want to put in your deck?
Here's one process that may help!
First, lay your creatures out in mana-cost order. This helps you see what creatures you're going to potentially be able to cast at each part of the game. (Don't lay your noncreatures out at this point unless they're cards you are planning to play as soon as you have that much mana.)
A good "mana curve" of creatures is crucial to a successful Sealed deck. You don't want to have a ton of cards at any single spot in the curve. It's important for you to have a good mix so you can play your cheap spells in the early game and your expensive spells in the late game. As a very general rule for Limited, I would look to play something like this:
1 mana: 0–2
2 mana: 4–6
3 mana: 3–5
4 mana: 2–4
5 mana 1–3
6+ mana: 0–2
That's far from hard and fast, but it's a good place to start. Cull your creatures down to these numbers by choosing your favorites.Now that you have your core creature base figured out, it's time to add in spells! Pick your favorites among your colors to bring your deck to 22 or 23 cards, and then you're good to go from the spell side.
The spells you're going to want the most are what are called "removal spells"—these are the spells that permanently neutralize your opponent's creatures by either dealing damage, keeping them tapped, or just straight-up destroying them. Sealed Deck Magic is all about creatures, so you'll want to play most of the cards in your colors that can get rid of your opponent's creatures.
One wrinkle to all of this are the modal double-faced cards in Zendikar Rising. Some of these are cards that are a land on one side and a nonland on the other. For example:
How should you count them? Lands? Creatures? Something else?
Well, it does depend on the card exactly, but I normally count them as a land since you can always play them as one. However, I usually want to make sure to play 18 lands when I'm playing at least one, and if I'm playing more than three, I'm very conscious about how many of my lands will begin entering the battlefield tapped. In general, playing more lands in this format can be great because of landfall, so playing 18 lands as a base is reasonable.
Here are a few more things to keep in mind for deck building:
- You can play more than 40 cards, but you really should stick to 40 if possible. Every card you play past 40 just means it's that much less likely you're going to draw that awesome rare you put in your deck!
- The land ratio you're looking at should be about 17 or 18 lands to 23 or 22 nonlands. This isn't right 100% of the time, but most Limited decks end up looking like this, and in general, it's what I would want to have. This can get tricky in Zendikar Rising, so be sure to check out my aside above.
- Play a mix of cheap-to-cast and expensive-to-cast cards. If you have all cheap, small creatures, then a single big creature can shut you down. If you have all large, expensive creatures, you risk getting run over first. Stick to a mix that focuses on the two-, three-, four-, and five-mana creatures. More games of Sealed Deck are won by casting a creature every turn starting on turn two or three than any other way.
- Evasion is important! Often, Sealed Deck games will get into stalls where both players have a lot of creatures and neither player can attack very well. Creatures with abilities like flying ensure that you can break through these creature stalls.
- Unlike most Magic formats, Sealed tends to be a little slower. If your deck is on the slow side, choosing to draw (go second) rather than play (go first) can be reasonable to give you that extra card
