Sealed Under Scrutiny: Why Is Stuff Bad?
By
Chris Harrold
Learning to play
Magic is like a box of chocolates. No, not that once you start eating them you
can’t stop and you keep going out to buy new chocolates in shiny wrappers. More
that you don’t know what each chocolate is until you have eaten it, unless of
course you use the handy guide provided with your box of
Magic cards are often
labelled “bad” or “good” without real reason and you have to bear in
mind that this depends highly on the
format and the player. I remember when I first started Magic I had a selection
of nine artefacts that I would swap in and out of every deck I played – my own
power 9 so to speak – and these included one of each of the Iron Star cycle. In
fact it took me a long time to get my first Throne of Bone and I was very
excited about it.
Nowadays I scoff at life gain and woefully inefficient creatures – much have I learnt.
The large majority of sealed deck discussions will start with:
“…and first we need to cut the unplayable cards…”
…and there is often very little discussion as to why these cards are unplayable and that is what I hope to talk about in this article. It is a tricky skill and still one I get wrong on many occasions, but I will share with you a pool and what I would rarely play. I emphasize the rarely as, in dire times, you may have to play suboptimal cards just to make it to 40.
The Pool (generated on www.ccgdecks.com):
So here we have the pool, though maybe I need to work out a better way to present it. It is time to rip through and kick out some junk so that we can get down to the nitty and gritty of building the deck.
Chaff: Votary of the Conclave; Grayscaled Gharial; Boros Recruit; Torpid Moloch; Skarrgan Pit-Skulk;
Creatures are often things I
am most reluctant to cut, but this little selection just do not do enough and
there should always be something better you can play, even if it is a land. I
used to believe that one drop creatures were important and always played 1 or 2
in my decks, but when you get to the mid to late game, which you always will in
limited, drawing one of these creatures is not going to affect the board in any
significant way.
Rule 1: One drops are bad
Exception: Mana fixing or powerful abilities
There are always exceptions to rules and in this case it is Elvish Skysweeper. He has a very relevant ability as removal is very hard to come by in green and this is reusable removal at that. Other exceptions with strong abilities include Plagued Rusalka and mana fixers, such as Elves of Deep Shadow and the BoP.
Chaff: Dromad Purebred; Gatehound; Crystal Seer; Ethereal Usher; Infectious Host; Zephyr Spirit;
This lot get cut on a pure basis of efficiency. If we are spending mana we want to make sure that what we get is worth the investment. In the case of Dromad Purebred, for example, we are spending 5 mana for a 1/5 creature. Fair enough that it can block most of the creatures that come along, but we need to be attacking with our creatures. I would want either a decent body, see Bramble Elemental, evasion, see Tattered Drake, or a good ability, see Agent of Masks. On average you should expect to pay, maximum (with the exception of game breaking abilities):
1/1 – 2 mana, but with an ability,
2/2 – 3 mana, but 2 mana is the norm and 1 is gravy – a Grizzly Bear > a Grey Ogre
3/3 – 5 mana, 4 is the norm (a Hill Giant), 3 mana or less and we are very happy.
5 mana for a 3/3 is the most I would pay and I wouldn’t be happy about it, unless it came with something good attached. As an example I may end up playing Barbarian Riftcutter on occasion, with it being likely I will not use his ability, and I would not be pleased.
Rule 2a: Don’t pay through the nose for
creatures
Exception: Weak pool or strong
abilities
Chaff: Nullstone Gargoyle;
Anything that costs 6 or more has either got to be huge, e.g. Siege Wurm, or have a very solid, if not game breaking ability, e.g. Vedalken Dismisser and Skarrgan Skybreaker. The dismisser is a fine exception to my rules as the tempo swing it can provide is very strong. Nullstone costs NINE mana, which is over half of the lands you are planning on playing. If you get to the nine lands to cast this guy you are already in trouble.
Rule 2b: If it costs >6 it
had better be big or game breaking
Chaff: Seismic Spike; Ghost Quarter;
I would try and describe why these are bad without giving the rule, but it is so simple that I’m just going to have to blurt it right out.
Rule 3: Land destruction is
bad in limited
Believe me, I have tried to
draft land destruction and with all those
Exception: When LD is the by-product
The exceptions to this rule, like the Wrecking Ball, are
when you get land destruction as a bonus. Take a look at Rolling Spoil…..I’ll
wait….
That card does not really
read destroy target land, it reads all creatures get -1/-1 (and while you
are there destroy target land). Similarly with Helldozer, who reads “I’m a 6/5 for six who may blow up
some land if I get bored”, and the previously mentioned Barbarian Riftcutter.
Chaff: Induce Paranoia; Muddle The
Mixture;
Counterspells are reactive spells, even more so than removal. You have to sit there, mana untapped, ready and waiting for your opponent to do smoething. Although this may happen coincidentally when you have nothing better to do you often find yourself holding back other spells just in case they play That-spell-that-beat-you-last-game-that-you-have-no-other-way-of-dealing-with™. At this point you would be much better off playing something proactive that affects the board as it is.
Rule 4: Counterspells are bad
in limited
Exception: Dedicated control decks;
efficient Counterspells
Sometimes this rule is difficult to enforce, especially in Ravnica. When we drafted RRR the Dimir Control Mill strategy was a strong way to go. Induce Paranoia could easily be played in these circumstances as milling 7 off of a Siege Wurm was good. Similarly I occasionally play Remand in draft and sealed, but there it acts more as tempo and also draws a card. If you have something worth transmuting for then maybe Muddle could make the cut.
Chaff: Flame-Kin War Scout; Whiptail Moloch; Writ of Passage; Bloodbond
March; Blockbuster; Smash; Surge of Zeal; Street Savvy;
These cards just don’t work. Period.
The War-Scout just dies to the next saproling your
opponent makes and the Moloch has a tendency to kill
one of your guys on the way in (if not himself) and
then trade with something unspectacular on the other side. That’s two of your
creatures dead to one of his.
Rule 5: Don’t
play cards that don’t do anything
This may sound like a really stupid rule, but it is an
important one nonetheless. If a card does next to nothing
then why play it? The creatures aside, the list above contains some
wonderful examples.
Bloodbond March – This is sealed, chance of having multiples of
one creature is next to zero (foil duplicates being the exception)
Street Savvy – So there may be a few swamp walkers around
but dedicating a card to blocking them is weak.
Blockbuster – This actually looks promising, but it never
really lives up to its potential and also costs too much.
Smash – This suffers from the lack of good artefacts in the
format. Mirrodin block would be different.
Enchantment removal is playable however.
Surge of Zeal – Are you going to play more than one creature
that share a colour that all need to have hast this turn?
On that note, if a creature comes with haste then good, but
if it doesn’t:
Rule 6: Do not play
spells that give creatures haste
Exceptions: Haste as a bonus – Think
Boros Guildmage, Fires of Yavimaya, Anger
Finally we get to:
Chaff: Dark Heart of the Wood;
This card actually falls into the above category, as it
does nothing to affect the board. It also gives us our final rule, which is foe
to all new players and their affinity for plains.
Rule 7: Do not
play a card for life gain alone
Faiths fetters is not played just because you gain four life and neither are
Loxodon Hierarch and Brightflame.
Conclave Phalanx gains life but it is the 2/4 body and convoke that make him
playable. Do not play a card that just says “Gain X Life” and if someone plays
one against you, just hope to God you don’t lose. New and inexperienced players love life gain – Do you want to be a n00b? I don’t
think so.
Hopefully this set of rules will set you in good steed to
start to understand how to look at a sealed deck. I shall impart two final
rules, or set of guidance, before I leave and take close not of these.
Rule 8: Your
sealed deck must consist of creatures, removal and land before anything else.
Rule 9: Do not,
under any circumstances, play combo in limited.
(No, not even Junktroller
and Tunnel Vision)
Aufwiedersehen Pet,
Chris (a.k.a. Dr. Chunk)