More thoughts on the SCG Invitational

I'm making a separate post since I have some stuff I want to say, but I don't want to bury it in the tournament report. 

The Star City Games Invitational is a very good tournament, but still has flaws.

     Star City knows what they are doing. They run events so much better than just about any other TO, even better than WotC does sometimes. They have created a "real" pro tour for magic players. By this, I mean it's much easier to make a living by playing SCG events than it is to play WotC events. The prize money is almost comparable, and the travel costs are usually much less. That said, there is still room for improvement.

    The invitational tournament is very comparable to a pro tour. However, having some players with byes in the tournament is probably not a good thing. They eliminated byes from the SCG opens over a year ago because they were too good, and, while I don't think they are too good in the invitational ( an extra 7 rounds of play helps mitigate their importance), I feel like it’s not good for the tournament. Byes are given out at GPs so that the pro players have an incentive to show up and compete for less money. But when the real money is on the line, byes are an arbitrary advantage for a few people. Of the people with 2 byes at the invitational, 4 made the top 8 (Dave Thomas, Shaheen Soorani, Todd Anderson, Ben Friedman) and 5 more made the money (Gerry Thompson, AJ Sacher, Adam Prosak, Nick Spagnolo, Brian Braun-Duin). All but 2 made day 2. The argument can be made that they did well because they are good players, and they earned the byes because they are good players, but at the invitational level, everyone is good. Reid Duke only had 1 bye. This is the current Magic Online World Champion, played last month at the Players Championship, got 4th place at the Invitational in December, won a Standard Open, and top 4 a Legacy Open the same weekend. How he has only 1 bye and someone like Chris VanMeter has 2 when he hasn't even played a SCG event this year is crazy to me. 

    Maybe the goal of the invitational isn't to find the best player, but to reward the best grinders. I don't like that as a goal, as much as I otherwise enjoyed the tournament.

Todd Anderson claiming that the Invitational is harder than a Pro Tour is just wrong.

    He's since backed off his claim a bit, and I'm glad to see he's admitted he might have been exaggerating a bit, but many people tried to defend his claim when he first made it. This was my first SCG Invitational, and I've played at 3 Pro Tours in the last year. The Pro Tours are much harder. Even discounting the Limited portion of the Pro Tour event, deck building for a new format at the PT is at least 3 times as hard as trying to solve a lame duck metagame. 

   The twitter discussion soon shifted to a claim that the Invitational is harder than a GP. I disagree with this on a couple levels; in particular, the expected value for the Invitational is just better. Fewer players, more prize money for an equivalent finish, easier record to make the cut to day 2, one more round of competition. It’s a lot easier to have a successful tournament at the invitational. The player quality might be a bit tougher at the invitational by eliminating some of the really bad players, but you also lose out on the Elite pro level players. 

    Despite all this, the invitational still had the exciting feel of playing "Big Time Magic" for "Big Time Money", and it is still very challenging.

The Coverage crew does a poor job of choosing which matches to feature.

    This might come off sounding like I'm complaining that I didn't get a feature match, so let me address that first: I actually prefer not having feature matches, and I enjoy my relative anonymity among the Good to Very Good US Magic Player circle. I know, I'm writing this blog, tweeting, streaming, etc., but it's not because I want to be "Magic Famous". That said, I probably should have been featured at least once over the weekend, and for whatever reason, they kept going with the same players over and over again.

    I only got my feature matches at the SCG in DFW because I was good friends with one of the writers working for SCG at the time, and because none of the bigger "names" were at that event. My only other feature matches were earned by being undefeated at GP Dallas after day 1. But it's not just about me, or is it just SCG Coverage. Zac Elsik finished 17th at PT Barcelona, and they didn't even have a picture of him. I feel like coverage teams are too busy sucking up to the "name" players to go out and do a bit of research on who is actually doing good besides the big names. 

    All that said, the coverage is getting better and better with every tournament, and I'm excited about the future of the game.

Todd Anderson won the Invitational. Todd Anderson is employed by Star City Games. 

    I am making no accusations with this comment. I fully believe everything is on the up and up. But whatever loophole that allows him to compete should probably be closed, for the integrity of the game. In a world where someone can be suspended for a year and half because it "looks like they cheated on camera", perception is reality and I hope they fix the way this might be perceived.

Dave Thomas finally broke the curse!

   For about a year now, Dave hasn't done well at any event I've been at. As soon as he goes somewhere I'm not at, he does really well. Well, finally we both had success at the same tournament, and I'm really happy for him.

As for my performance, I'm only a little disappointed.

   My goal was top 8, and I finished only 1 win off of that goal, but I really wanted to do better. I think I could have played a better legacy deck, or at least a better version of my deck. Because of my finish, I'm close to qualifying for the next Invitational in Los Angeles, and I'm considering trying to go for it. 

SCG Invitational Report

This past weekend I played the Star City Games Invitational in Atlanta. I finished 21st, good for $500. I played U/W Miracles in Legacy and R/G Aggro in Standard. Rounds 1-4 and 9-12 were Legacy, and 5-8 and 13-16 were Standard.

Legacy Decklist

4 Tundra
4 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
5 Island
3 Plains
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds

2 Trinket Mage

2 Land Tax
2 Relic of Progenitus
3 Counterbalance
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Entreat the Angels
2 Counterspell
2 Daze
4 Force of Will
4 Terminus
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Brainstorm
4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Sensei's Divining Top

Sideboard:
2 Humility
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Path to Exile
2 Vendilion Clique
2 Envelop
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Moat
1 Pithing Needle

Round 1 - Brant, Damian - UB Ad Nauseam Storm
Game 1 he duresses me twice and takes my two jaces. i'm left with only swords to plowshares and he kills me on turn 3. game 2 I lead with turn 1 top, he duresses, and i show him 2x counterbalance. i resolve the 2nd one and win easily. Game 3 he has no disruption, and decides to just go for it on turn 4. i have counterspell for his infernal tutor, then top into counterbalance to lock him out.
1-0

Round 2 - Simpson-Wolf, Andrew - Dredge
Game 1 he plays Putrid Imp and passes. I play Relic of Progenitus, he's not happy. I win easily. Game 2 he mulligans to 4, has no plays. I win easily.
2-0

Round 3 - Gerard Fabiano - BUG Delver
I lose two quick games where he stuck Dark Confidant and I didn't have the removal for it. I really liked his decklist.
2-1

Round 4 - Charles Kaufmann - RUG Delver
Chi is an old friend of my from my Charleston days, so it was a friendly match. Game 1 lock him out early with counterbalance and top. Game 2 he didn't have much to sideboard, and mulliganed 4, and I win easily.
3-1


Standard Decklist

4 Kessig Wolf Run
4 Copperline Gorge
4 Rootbound Crag
9 Forest
2 Mountain

4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Bonfire of the Damned
2 Dismember
2 Sword of War and Peace

4 Llanowar Elves
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Strangleroot Geist
4 Borderland Ranger
4 Huntmaster of the Fells
2 Wolfir Silverheart
2 Thragtusk
1 Ulvenwald Tracker

Sideboard:
2 Zealous Conscripts
3 Pillar of Flame
3 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Thragtusk
1 Acidic Slime
1 Viridian Corrupter
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Combust
1 Crushing Vines
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast



Round 5 - Corbett Gray - Green Summer
Game 1 i mulligan to 5, but lead with birds into borderland ranger. He has birds into Palladium Myr, but i topdeck bonfire on turn 3. He follows up with Elvish Archdruid, and I topdeck another bonfire. He then plays two llanowar elves, and I cast the bonfire from my hand. I win easily from there. Would have lost if I wasn't on the play. Game 2 he had two arbor elves but no forests, and I was able to kill off his other mana guys with ulvenwald tracker and win before he could cast primeval titan.
4-1

Round 6 - Shaheen Soorani - Mono Blue Delver
Game 1 i mulligan to 6 and keep a 4 land, birds, huntmaster hand. I draw a bunch of land and die quickly. game 2 is much longer, but i never draw bonfire and he gets me with talrand.
4-2

Round 7 - Dan Jordan - UW Delver
I win a long game 1 by just playing larger guys and eventually bonfiring his team. game 2 he mulls to 5 and never draws white mana.
5-2

Round 8 - Devin Manning - Delver
I was on my way to winning game 1 when he thought scours me and i flip over combust. that card isn't supposed to be there! After my game loss, i win games 2 and 3 by bonfiring at opportune times, he isn't very happy.
6-2

Round 9 - Stephen Mann - RUG Delver
He plays much slower than he needs to, so even though i win 2-0, we almost go to time. I play around spell pierce game 1 with counterbalance and top, but he has Izzet Charm! I didn't know the card was legal yet, it seems super awesome. Still won the game despite that blowout.
7-2

Round 10 - Bryant Cook - TES
The legendary Bryant Cook, know for playing TES, so i mulligan an otherwise solid hand without any disruption game 1, but i still lose. Game 2 i stick counterbalance and top. Game 3 i envelop his cabal therapy, he goes for it, but i have second envelop for his burning wish.
8-2

Round 11 - John Farrow - Omniscience
Side note: so many magic players mispronounce that card. at first i thought it was intentional / ironic, but now i think its just ignorance. Game 1 he turn 1 show and tell, i have no counter, he has omniscience + griselbrand into emrakul. Game 2 i stop first to show and tells, one with a counterspell, second with O-ring. I stick jace, but have to keep bottoming his good stuff, eventually he rips a burning wish for eye to nowhere to bounce my oring, then casts another wish for petals of insight, and i lose to grapeshot.
8-3

Round 12 - Jesse Piland - Bant
I played against him in GP Atlanta, but Bant is a much tougher matchup for UW miracles than it was for goblins. I lose in 3 after keeping a 1 lander game 3 and not getting there.
8-4

Round 13 - Ryan Hovis - 4 Color Pod
I lose game 1 when he naturally draws acidic slime, sun titan, and elesh norn. Could have beat any 2 of the 3. I win game 2 when he stalls on lands, and then bonfire perfectly game 3 to win when he can't kill me because he sided out his zealous conscripts.
9-4

Round 14 - Dan Musser - Zombies
I mulligan to 5 game 1, get my birds tragic slipped, and then he plays 2 diregraf ghouls. But i rip lands to cast my gas, he rips lands instead of spells, and i win easily. Game 2 is similar, except i'm never not in control.
10-4

Round 15 - Michael Hetrick - 4 Color Pod
I win game 1 with sword of war and peace. Game 2 i flood out and he has multiple thragtusks. Game 3 i get him to 1 and 6 poison with 2 silverhearts in play, but i can't do the final point before he double thragtusks and gets elesh norn to kill me.
10-5

Round 16 - Ross Merriam - UW Delver
I win game 1, then lose game 2 when i keep an iffy hand and flood, but still almost win with ulvenwald traker. Game 3 his hand is very slow and i'm able to continuously apply pressure and kill him with kessig wolf run.
11-5


Standard
Wins vs UW delver 3x, 4 color pod, zombies, and green summer.
Losses vs Mono Blue delver and 4 color pod.

Legacy
Wins vs RUG 2x, Storm 2x, Dredge
Loss vs Bant, Omniscience, BUG

I was really happy with Standard deck, somewhat disappointed with legacy list. Probably going to move away from the land tax version. Standard won't be the same again, but i might want more combusts if everyone moves to the mirran crusader version of delver.

I'll have more thoughts on the tournament up soon.

I Answer the Questions! - 9/25

I'll have a complete report from the SCG Invitational up soon, but in the mean time, I'll answer the questions!

In your own words, how would you describe the Invitational?
I love multi-format events.

Do you think that Show and Tell should be banned in Legacy?
Yes, it's only going to become more of a problem as they print more cards.

Will U/W Delver match its Indianapolis Invitational popularity in Atlanta?
Definitely in the Invitational, since all the good players like to play it for some reason.

How well do you expect Zombies to fare this weekend?
Zombies is too inconsistent, and not powerful enough in a field this tough.

What would your ‘dream team’ be for Grand Prix San Jose?
G. Taylor Williams and Minh Mai. Won't ever happen for many reasons.

If you could keep one card from Scars block until the next rotation, which one would it be and why?
Copperline Gorge, but I'd rather they just print Stomping Ground. Maybe Green Sun's Zenith instead.

What do you think of the fully-spoiled Return to Ravnica?
It's ok. There's a lot of hype, but outside of the dual lands I feel like it might be a let down. The dual lands back is REALLY exciting though.

Will the unbanning of Valakut in Modern influence Pro Tour Return to Ravnica?
Yes. It's pretty good against Jund, and if it's popular enough, Zoo can actually be a deck again. Helps increase the diversity of playable decks.

Does Stoneforge Mystic belong in control decks right now?
No. Terminus makes creatures unplayable.

Hidden Gems in Return to Ravnica

[Editor's Note: This was originally published on the Asgard Games website in September 2012. Sharing here for archival purposes.]

                The Return to Ravnica pre-release is next weekend. By
now, you’ve probably seen many of the cards on various sites, and
heard some opinions about the quality of some of the more notable
cards. Today, I’m going to look at a few of the off the radar cards
that I think will be important in the upcoming Standard format.

The Gate Cycle (Azorious Guildgate, Golgari Guildgate, Izzet
Guildgate, Rakdos Guildgate, Selesnya Guildgate)

RTR marks the highly anticipated return of the original Ravnica block
shock lands, so much of the focus has been on those, but I think these
lands are just as important! Others have already and accurately noted
the affect these will change the Pauper mana bases, and the importance
of them in Limited should be readily apparent.  In Standard, these
will be the 9-12th dual lands in a two color deck if you are playing a
color combination of one of the RTR guilds. This adds a level of
consistency to two color decks that should not be overlooked. Current
RB Zombie decks run only 8 dual lands, and therefore occasionally lose
to not having red mana to play the red spells in hand. The “enters the
battlefield tapped” drawback is much less of a drawback than most
people think, and I’ll happily play 4 Golgari Guildgates in my BG
Zombie list if it means I don’t have to play any basic forests.
Unfortunately, these only help half of the two color combinations, so
Gruul, Boros, Simic, Dimir, and Orzhov decks will have to find other
ways to make the mana work, or just not be played at all.

Rakdos Cackler

The power level of creatures being printed is getting higher by the
set, but this card is still very solid. It gives mono black aggro 12
one-drop two-power creatures, and the “can’t block” drawback hasn’t
caused Gravecrawler to see any less play. The fact that it also fits
into red decks can only mean that it will see that much more play in
the new Standard.

Centaur Healer

With Wurmcoil Engine, Timely Reinforcements, and Batterskull rotating,
there isn’t as much life gain available to deckbuilders. This guy
could show up out of the board as a speed bump in GW decks as they
build up to Thragtusk mana.

Giant Growth

The original pump spell is back, and it’s still incredibly efficient.
Luckily for everyone, all of the infect cards are rotating! The
difference between one and two mana is huge for cards like this. While
Selesnya Charm will see more play because of its flexibility,  the
“Green Brute Force” still has a place, especially with Fencing Ace.

Jace, Architect of Thought

Patrick Chapin wrote an entire article on Star City Games about how
good he thinks this guy is. Gerry Thompson and Brad Nelson each have
taken to Twitter declaring this the second best Jace ever after they
played with it. And yet, most people I talk to still seem to think
this card isn’t very good! Personally, I think it is much better than
Vraska (a card with 2 abilities that don’t actually do anything), and
it’s clearly better than Jace, Memory Adept. Even if you just use the
-2 ability twice, it’s 4 mana for 4 cards. He’s not going to control
the game like JTMS or Gideon, but that’s not his purpose. Like Jace
1.0, it’s best to look at it as a card drawing spell that occasionally
draws you much more cards. Also, the +1 is deceptively powerful. It
can blank an entire battlefield of Lingering Souls, and if you have
any creatures in play to protect Jace, they become much better at
doing just that. Don’t forget that the “ultimate” ability lets you
search your own library, too. You can Bribery their best creature, and
get a second Jace from your deck and use it right away! Comparing this
(or any planeswalker) to Jace, the Mind Sculptor isn’t fair, so don’t
let that cloud your judgment on this guy.

Martial Law

This is the real Dungeon Geists. Playing this againt an aggro deck
forces them to commit more creatues to the board, letting you punish
them with Supreme Verdict. I can actually see UW decks playing the max
4 copies of this, and just 2-3 Verdicts. Control decks will have to
find a different way to win in the mirror than just a single creature
or two, either going with Entreat the Angels or a milling strategy.

These are just the cards I think are being overlooked right now.
Obviously, cards like Lotleth Troll, Abrupt Decay, Dreadbore, and
others are going to be big players as well. And don’t confuse  my
recommendation on these cards as a speculation based on card pricing,
since card value isn’t strictly related to how good a card is (but if
you can get Jace at less than $20, it’s probably a good deal). That’s
all I have for now, I hope you enjoy your Return to Ravnica.

Ty Thomason

@ceciliajupe on Twitter.

I Answer the Questions

Hopefully this will be a weekly feature here. I'll answer the Quick Questions and Top 8 Profile questions from the weekends events here for you, so you can get my perspective on things.

From GP Costa Rica:

Guild Affiliation:  The Azorius Senate
Favorite RTR Preview Card:  Jace, Architect of Thought
Where would you like to see a GP in the future?   I think South Africa. They had one there before, and they haven't been back to the continent since. I would consider going just to check off Africa from my list.

From GP Moscow:

Favorite place traveled to for magic?   Mexico City probably. Edged Barcelona by way of travel time
Detain, Overload, Unleash, Scavenge, or Populate?  Unleash.

From Star City Los Angeles:

Toughest deck to pilot in Legacy?  I think the Doomsday consensus is spot on.
Is it difficult to playtest Legacy?  It really depends on what results you want. It probably takes more games on average to get a solid feel for a matchup, and theres probably 10x the amount of decks you see in standard or modern. However, most of them never change so testing you do now will be relevant for much longer than testing a smaller format.
Have you changed any slots in your deck based on the recent success of B/R Zombies?  My RG deck hasn't changed as a result, but i'm playing it because zombies is so popular.
Which archetype would you like to play against during every round today? Monoblack Artifact Control, because it sucks.
Which Scars block or Magic 2012 card will you be happiest to see leave the format? Primeval Titan
What was the hardest card to find for your Legacy deck? Moat

about sponsor invites

Yesterday the invitation list was finalized to the next Pro Tour in Seattle. This includes five sponsor invites for PTQ grinders, as well as a special invite for William Jensen. Just like last time, this has created some controversy. I'll break it down with my thoughts.

First, I absolutely agree with and support the invitation of William Jensen. I hope they do that in the future for other borderline Hall of Famers. Maybe Chris Pikula or Tsuyoshi Ikeda could finally get in, but that's a topic for another day.

The controversy is about the invites given to the following players: Michael Hopkins (USA), Fernando Solorzano (Costa Rica), Stephen Murray (Scotland), Jasper Johnson-Epstein (USA), and Gergely Gulyas (Hungary). Later on Twitter, Organized Play head Helene Bergeot listed the accomplishments of these players, as well as what the focus was for their decisions:

16hHelene Bergeot ‏@HeleneBergeot

Gulyas: 2nd at 2 WMCQ, 3rd at a PTQ AVR

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16hHelene Bergeot ‏@HeleneBergeot

Murray: 6th at WMC, 3rd at a PTQ RTR, 2nd at a PTQ AVR; Johnson-Epstein: 3rd at two PTQ RTR, 4th at a PTQ RTR, 4th at a PTQ AVR

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16hHelene Bergeot ‏@HeleneBergeot

Hopkins: GP Anaheim T8, 2nd at a PTQ RTR, T4 at two PTQ AVR; Solorzano: 2nd at a WMCQ, 2nd at a PTQ RTR, 2nd at a PTQ AVR, 4th at a PTQ RTR

Helene Bergeot ‏@HeleneBergeot

@marcooj88 @theshipitholla We primarily considered players who consistently tried to qualify over the past two seasons and almost got there

There are two issues: The awarding of invites to "undeserving" players, and the awarding of plane tickets to non-ptq winners.

The plane ticket issue is this: There are 44 Gold level pros currently, all of whom are qualified for the next pro tour. They only have plane tickets if they top 25 the last PT, top 4 a GP feeding into Seattle, or win a PTQ (yes, they can still play in PTQs). A said goal of the change to PWPs was to give all invited players a plane ticket. I think we can do with less PTQs and more plane tickets to these pros.  But that said, it seems pointless to give out a sponsor invite without giving a plane ticket, so I don't feel like that should be changed, but I don't blame gold pros for feeling slighted.

A trickier issue is the lack of defined criteria to earn these, and a seemingly fluctuating standard. For PT AVR, the recipients of the sponsor invitation had much more impressive resumes. Two of them had 2 GP top 8s (only 1 GP top 8 in the entire group of new invites). A 26th place finish at a PT. And the one guy that didn't have a GP top 8 made the finals of five PTQs. So what is the standard? They won't say, and I understand that. It can change, it's based on what "feels" right (Aaron Forsythe's words, not mine). But to me, these don't feel right, and it's not just the stats (I think Hopkins and Murray have good cases based on GP and WMC performance, but the others don't impress me compared with other people I know), its the last tweet by Helene about only looking at people that didn't qualify before.

There is a large group of players (about 100 or so) that are Silver level pros. These players are pretty good, you've probably heard of a few of them too. They got to Silver level by playing in on of the last two PTs and also a couple of money GP finishes. These players are the ones that consistently put up results like the ones that qualified the sponsor invites, but these players weren't looked at because they had "got there" the past few seasons. WotC seems to be implying that a PT first timer is more deserving than someone who Q'd legitimately before and travelled to GPs on their own dime. Maybe they are. Maybe the Silver level pros had their shot and didn't convert, and maybe its time to give someone else a shot. But these someone elses aren't demonstrably better than a Silver level pro with similar or slightly worse stats. This is just another reason of why it sucks to be Silver. All you get is one PTQ against some of the best players in the world, thanks for playing.

And just to put it out there, lets look at my stats from the past season. Top 2 a RTR PTQ, top 8 a RTR PTQ. Top 64 a GP. Played a PT. I don't think that's enough to "deserve" an invite. But since we're looking at the past two seasons, maybe it changes things: Top 1 PTQ AVR, Top2 PTQ RTR, Top 8 PTQ RTR, Top 16 GP, Top 32 GP, 3x Top 64 GP, played in 2 PTs. Still not that impressive if you ask me, especially compared to others over the same period. Or look at Bing Lukes MODO results from this season alone: 3 MTGO PTQ Top8 plus a MOCS Top8. Its so fuzzy how can you really say?

Anyway, the big point is the system doesn't work. PWPs was supposed to reward consistent PTQ performance, but we all know how that turned out. But the system still doesn't work. Wizards acknowledges this with these sponsor invites, but it still feels like a temporary solution. I hope they are working on something better and clearer for the future.

Putting the band back together

Magic branding is a thing apparently. With all the writing and streaming and videos and stuff going on, your name is your brand. With this in mind, I've decided to restart my blog. I don't have any lofty goals for my brand. I'm not trying to make a living streaming. I'm not trying to get my name out there to one day get an R&D job. I'm not trying to become "Magic Famous". Now that I'm writing articles on a biweekly basis, and occasionally talking into the din of the twitter-verse hoping to be heard, I'm going to use the blog as an extension of my "brand" to bring you more!

What I envision this blog will contain:

Tournament reports from smaller tournaments or less important tournaments. I like to write these, but most people don't like reading them, so I want to avoid putting them into my "legit" articles.

Quick thoughts about decks in various degrees of testing and formats. See it here first, but don't expect an in depth look.

Humorous / Insightful stuff that's too long to go on twitter. I want to start answering the Quick Interview questions from the big tournaments over the weekend on a personal basis. I'll post that kind of stuff here.


It's going to be a work in progress. Let me know what you like and what you don't like.

Read my articles here: http://www.asgardgames.net/

Follow me on twitter: @ceciliajupe

Power and Consistency in Sealed Deck Construction

[Editor's Note: This was originally published on the Asgard Games website in September 2012. Sharing here for archival purposes.]

                Asgard Games is hosting a sealed deck Grand Prix Trial for GP San Jose on September 22. Included in the prize for the winner is a plane ticket to the Grand Prix itself! To get you ready for the tournament, I’m going to talk about how I approach sealed deck building. During Innistrad block, my sealed deck record over 80% at PTQs and Grand Prix, so I may know a thing or two.

                Many things change from set to set when it comes to sealed deck building. The number of lands to play, number of colors to play, and whether to play first or draw first are all dependent on the sealed environment. In Ravnica (and most likely in the upcoming Return to Ravnica), 3 color was the low number of colors played, but in Shadowmoor you could occasionally get a mono-colored deck. Zendikar block necessitated a play first strategy, and many old-timers can tell you about playing 16 or fewer lands in Mirrodin sealed. But since the upcoming GPT is M13, we will focus on that.

                Core set tempo has increased with the last few sets, but I still think the nature of sealed means you should be choosing to draw first. There are always exceptions to be mindful of, but as a general case I would say draw first. Land counts should be between 16-18 mana sources (usually 17). I also would almost always try to play two colors, and two colors only. I’ll go over the exceptions to these rules to help you better understand the reasoning behind the rules themselves, and give you the tools to identify times you shouldn’t be following the rules.

When should you play first?

·         Play first if your mana curve is very low AND aggressive. A low curve defensive strategy is always better on the draw, even in draft. When considering if it’s right to play first, be mindful of mulligans. If your deck can mulligan to six and still operate on only 2 or 3 lands, it’s probably ok to play first. The way I figure this is a simple count of cards that cost 4 or more mana. If over half my cards cost 4 or more, I’m more likely to want to be on the draw, but if it’s only four 4-drops and one or two 5-drops, I’d consider playing first.

·         Play first if you plan on casting Sign in Blood or Divination as your first spell. Two swamps and Sign in Blood is a really good opening hand, until you have to start discarding on turn 2. So in cases where I have multiples of these cards, I will choose to play first when I normally wouldn’t.

·         Play first if your opponent wants to play first AND you think they are right. Just because they are trying to be aggressive and even if they are successful game 1 still doesn’t mean it’s right for you to play first game 2. The quality of your opponent will factor in to your decision here.

·         When in doubt, choose to play first. This changes from set to set, but with M13 I think playing first if you aren’t sure is the safer play. That said, hopefully after reading this article you have less instances when you aren’t sure. The reason I say to play first is that I think you are more likely to lose a game by choosing to draw when you should have chosen play than vice versa.

 

When should you play 16 or 18 lands?

 

·         Play 16 lands when you have multiples of Arbor Elf and/or Farseek in your deck. The lowest I would consider playing is 15 if I was solid base green and had 3 Arbor Elves and at least 1 Farseek. In both of these instances, play an extra land if your mana curve is high, or the rules for playing 18 lands come up.

·         Play 16 lands when you are almost mono color and a lower curve. I won’t play 16 lands with more than two 5-drops, and having early drop creatures in both colors would also keep me at 17. But if you have a solid WW deck with multiple Ajani’s Sunstrikers and only splashing red for some Searing Spears, 16 lands might be the right call.

·         Play 18 lands when the 23^rd spell is really bad. Sometimes there just isn’t enough cards in the two colors you want, but instead of playing a third color, splashing, or playing something really bad, you can just play the 18^th land. Playing 18 lands means you have to shift your mulligan decisions.  You should lean more towards mulliganing 5 land 2 spell hands, and lean more towards keeping 5 spell 2 land hands.

·         Play 18 lands if you have to cast a 5cc spell on turn 5. Sometimes you end up with a great deck, unfortunately the low curve was replaced with extra Turn to Slag and Essence Drains. Go ahead and play 18 lands. The last thing I want is to die with multiple 5cc removal in hand and stuck on 4 lands.

·         When playing with different land counts than you are used to, keep it in mind when making decisions. Lower land counts mean you should probably cast spells sooner rather than waiting. Extra lands in the deck require a more cautious approach to trading cards and using removal.

 

When should you play something other than 2 colors?

 

·         Play mono color if the gods smile on you and give you an amazing deck with enough playables in one color. You should still look at splashing a second color for extra removal or evasion creatures, if the colored mana requirements aren’t too harsh.

·         Do not play 3 evenly split colors ever. Even with “perfect mana”, it’s still not perfect mana.

·         Splashing is something I find many top players to have vastly different opinions about. Some will splash for removal almost every time, and look to find ways to splash bomb-type creatures. I am not one of these players. I almost never splash, and when I do, I want to have at least 2 “free” sources of the splash color. (A free source is something like Evolving Wilds or Glacial Fortress or Farseek). Splashing multiple colors is something that requires you to have free sources, or something like Gem of Becoming to get two of the splash lands. In general, I would rather play a couple of mediocre cards 21-23 and be two colors than to splash with no free sources.

·         Playing 1 main color and 2 splash colors is possible, but it usually requires your main color to be green.

 

 

What all of these points of advice allude to is the balance between power and consistency in sealed deck. These are not mutually exclusive things! Your deck can be powerful and consistent, if you’re lucky. Also beware of some traps. Making your deck more consistent and less powerful might be just making your deck consistently bad! Sometimes your best bet might just be to hope to get lucky, but hopefully it doesn’t have to be. I like to play weaker colors with less depth if they have very powerful cards rather than playing the deep colors and splashing the power cards.

 

I hope this advice helps you in your future sealed deck tournaments. Also, don’t forget to play in the GPT at Asgard Games on September 22 and win your plane ticket to California!

 

Later

Ty Thomason

@ceciliajupe on twitter