Mirage Sealed Deck Construction Questions
Branslim
I have been trying to improve my sealed deck construction
skills. In order to do this,I've tried to interest others
in my area in getting together in small groups to compare
what we do when constructing our decks.
What I had in mind was to have each person open a deck
and boosters and then construct a deck,writing down what
they're using in the deck (as well as lands needed) and
then reassembling the cards in alphabetical order to pass
them along to the next person.
This will give each of the people in the group a chance
to see how their decks compare to others and in the group
discussion that follows it will allow them to see whether
or not they've done the best they could.
So far I haven't managed to find the requisite 4-5 people
to do this,I guess that in my area everyone is already good
enough,except for me. So here's my last sealed deck/booster
combo that I got this past weekend at a tournament. I'll
list the cards I received and then the cards I used to make
my sealed deck. I'd appreciate any comments you have on what
I could have done better.
The tournament was a 4 round swiss,I went 3-1 but the one match
I lost was 0-3 in duels and that kept me out of the final 8.
Mirage Deck/Booster Contents
White Green Bluen
Civic Guildmage Barbed Foilage Azimaet Drake
Divine Offering Fallow Earth Bay Falcon
Femeref Healer Fallow Earth Dissipate
Femeref Knight Gibbering Hyenas Ether Wall
Healing Salve Jungle Wurm Ether Wall
Ivory Charm Rampant Growth Jolt
Ivory Charm Regeneration Jolt
Pearl Dragon Sabertooth Cobra Merfolk Seer
Prismatic Circle Serene Heart Mind Harness
Shadowbane Uktabi Faerie Ray of Command
Sunweb Uktabi Wildcats Sandbar Crocodile
Teremko Griffin Unseen Walker Sea Scryer
Village Elder Soar
Wild Elephant Thirst
Red Black Gold/Artifacts
Blistering Barrier Ashen Powder Haunting Apparition
Builder's Bane Bone Harvest Jungle Troll
Burning Palm Efreet Bone Harvest Horrible Hordes
Burning Shield Askari Breathstealer
Flare Cadaverous Knight Lands
Goblin Elite Infantry Dark Ritual Plains 4
Goblin Scouts Dirtwater Wraith Mountains 5
Lightning Reflexes Gravebane Zombie Swamps 4
Searing Spear Askari Mire Shade Islands 4
Spitting Earth Sewer Rats Forests 5
Talruun Minotaur Shallow Grave
Viashino Warrior Skulking Ghost
Soulshriek
My constructed deck consisted of the following cards:
Blistering Barrier Islands 5
Burning Palm Efreet Mountains 6
Burning Shield Askari Swamps 6
Flare
Searing Spear Askari
Spitting Earth
Talruun Minotuar
Viashino Warrior
Bone Harvest
Breathstealer
Cadaverous Knight
Dark Ritual
Dirtwater Wraith
Gravebane Zombie
Skulking Ghost
Azimaet Drake
Bay Falcon
Dissipate
Ether Well (2)
Mind Harness
Ray of Command
Sandbar Crocodile
Sea Scryer
Haunting Apparition
Thanks for reading. Any help you can give would be appreciated.
Chris McBride
In article <553vp8$r...@newsbf02.news.aol.com>, bran...@aol.com¸ says...
>
>
> I have been trying to improve my sealed deck construction
> skills. In order to do this,I've tried to interest others
> in my area in getting together in small groups to compare
> what we do when constructing our decks.
>
Well, you could use the neat little 'Deck Sealer' program that's out
on the internet to help you increase your practice in sealed deck.
It's a little cheaper than buying starter decks all the time.
Your card mix is not an easy choice. Since you did not get much creature
kill, that makes it even harder.
Your Red has decent creatures, good defense, and a couple of creature kills.
Would like to see a Chaos Charm or X spell, but oh well. Probably a keeper.
Green, well your green sucks. Jungle wurm rocks, and is worth playing with,
but your other creatures are not that great or do not work in sealed deck
effectively (wildcats, Village Elder, especially in combo, and especially with
just a splash of green).
Blue - Blue looks great. Flyers, creature control, Mind Harness is great
for those Crash of Rhinos!. Keep it.
Your White I think is very playable. Anytime I get a Healer I consider
playing White. You've got a Healer, Guildmage (which rock in sealed), and a
big flying dragon. The biggest advantage is ways to save your creatures,
with 2 Ivory Charms, Healing Salve, and Shadowbane. That can be all important
in a deck that has very little ways to neutralize other players creatures,
except in combat. I went 4-0 in the first 4 rounds of the pre-release tourney
with a deck that had NO creature kill, largely because of the above cards.
The only problem is lack of creatures.
Your black is not bad. Regenerating is good, and bone harvest is strong as
a way to recycle important creatures and not loose a draw. But nothing great.
I personally would have chosen Blue/Red/White.
--
Chris McBride.............................cmcbride@ionet.net
...........It all depends on your point of view.............
bryan
Branslim wrote:
>
> I have been trying to improve my sealed deck construction
> skills. In order to do this,I've tried to interest others
> in my area in getting together in small groups to compare
> what we do when constructing our decks.
>
> and boosters and then construct a deck,writing down what
> they're using in the deck (as well as lands needed) and
> then reassembling the cards in alphabetical order to pass
> them along to the next person.
>
> This will give each of the people in the group a chance
> to see how their decks compare to others and in the group
> discussion that follows it will allow them to see whether
> or not they've done the best they could.
>
> So far I haven't managed to find the requisite 4-5 people
> to do this,I guess that in my area everyone is already good
> enough,except for me. So here's my last sealed deck/booster
> combo that I got this past weekend at a tournament. I'll
> list the cards I received and then the cards I used to make
> my sealed deck. I'd appreciate any comments you have on what
> I could have done better.
>
not use for the color, ie.. white, or green. In a seeled deck, or any
for that matter a 40 percent manna ratio is a must. 24 land is perfect.
spmc...@midway.uchicago.edu
> I would have added more land, even if that ment adding land you could
> not use for the color, ie.. white, or green. In a seeled deck, or any
> for that matter a 40 percent manna ratio is a must. 24 land is
>
> perfect.
24 land in sealed deck...about right.
24 land in consrtucted???
Perhaps, but only if you're not playing any speed-ups. Otherwise you
will have serious late game mana problems, and will have problems
dealing with 20-40 decks, IMO.
Peace,
Shaun
Dante
I've been trying to improve my sealded deck playing as well. I'm lucky
enough (and have enough savings) to play 2 or three of these games a
week against terribly good players. I'm finally getting to the place
where I can win occasionally in a 8 to 16 person tourney. These are a
few drafting rules that seem to apply. Rules are meant to be broken
and are all the time, but only knowingly and with reason. (I'm sure
flames will fly as soon as I post these)
We usually play 1 starter/2 boosters with a 40 card min.
1. CREATURES FIRST
They stay on the table, they do damage and block, and with luck,
they have abilities. In a 40 min. deck, I play with no less than 15.
If you go too light on the creature side, you get smacked while
waiting for a DD/LD/etc. card. Cards like errant knight and sulking
ghost get used and can be clutch cards in games like this. Avoid
sacrificial cards because you only have 40 or so.
2. FLYING RULES
I know a guy that always plays white/? in IA/AL sealed because of
the flyers in white. An air force will devastate a deck w/o flying. If
you don't have flying, then try to think of a way to deal with flyers.
Sometimes this doesn't work, especially in Mirage drafts. I had 9
flyers and my first round opponent had drafted 3 Dirkwater Wraiths and
4 Tropical Storms. A pumpable swampwalker!?!? It was cool when I was
in the same situation a week later though...
3. 18/19 LAND and 23/24 CARDS and 2 colors if possible.
I always play this way. It works for me after tweaking with
different ratios. I don't get hosed very often and don't draw too much
land. Staying this close to the limit gets you the cards you count on
faster. One problem is getting decked in stalled out games though. I
was down to 3 cards and drew Reinforcements(sp?) which allowed me to
deck the other guy.
4. ENCHANTMENTS/CANTRIPS/INSTANTS/SORCERYS
If I'm adding non creature cards, this is usually the way I
prioritize my picks. Of course it depends on the particular card as
well, but I'd rather have good enchantments than good cantrips.
Cantrips rule, because of the added draw. Soldevi Sentries are very
interesting because of this too. It blocks! It regenerates! It allows
him to draw! Your opponent almost always takes the draw, and true, it
does give him a card advantage, but no groundlings are getting in,
which stalls the game and, if lucky, decks him. I'm on the fence about
continuing with this strategy...
I hope this helps a little. I'll post my draft next...
Henrik Clausen
On Sun, 3 Nov 1996 04:47:57 GMT, spmc...@midway.uchicago.edu wrote:
>> I would have added more land, even if that ment adding land you could
>> not use for the color, ie.. white, or green. In a seeled deck, or any
>> for that matter a 40 percent manna ratio is a must. 24 land is
>>
>> perfect.
>
>24 land in sealed deck...about right.
Eh, of 40 cards??
-Henrik
Ihorizon
On Sat, 09 Nov 1996 12:20:42 GMT, hcla...@post4.tele.dk (Henrik
Clausen) wrote:
For Sealed Deck play I like to use a ratio of 25 cards to 17 land or
26/16. Unless I'm only playing 2 colors then I cut the land down to
15 or 14.