The hard games

Well nothing like a little overconfidence to get slapped down in a hurry. I won't lie, two mulls didn't help either. This is a test in a more exhaustive recap to see if A) it's any fun to read and B) it's any fun to put together.

Game 1

Right off the bat, we're starting with a very clear mull hand. It some ways it's nice when it's a very easy decision.

Take two is clearly more keepable. Some early game action, some control. I can work with this. Or so I think right before I get RUN OVER. Next stop, turn 4 aka the end of the curve-out stage. How do we look?

Not great. I get dinged early and he starts casting some very scary allies. Oh wait, it gets worse.

In case it's hard to read, he got out the following. Check out this murder's row of allies from game 1:
     

Game 2

Let's just move along shall we?  Here I draw a stronger hand.

Obviously happier with three lands in hand, but lots of early action makes this an easy keep. Sadly, my opponent keeps a hand lacking red mana and doesn't draw any while my deck does a pretty entertaining imitation of an aggro deck by rolling War Cleric, to Sky Climber to The Wall (3/3 haste is a reasonable four-drop in a way...). Victory!

Game 3 

On to the rubber match. Of course I start again with a freaking mull.

The board develops in a pretty mellow way. I'm torn because I don't want to dump TOO much (I do have my sweeper) but I also need to force him to cast his scary cards by having something resembling a presence. Eventually I draw a Wave-Wing Elemental, and seeing that as a great threat, I sweep the board.

Turn Four

Post sweep, I start dinging him pretty good with a Wave-Wing Elemental, but landfall makes it 5/6... and also vulnerable to a Smite the Monstrous. *^%. I promptly start flooding, but keep the pressure on with Awakened land and my tapper.

Unfortunately answers > no answers. I get him down to 3 before he Oblivion Strikes me tapper and then pulls a great ace: Ondu Awakening. Gaining 8 life and building another massive threat is too much for me.

Okay, so 2-1 now. I have been humbled, can I go back to winning?

Sealed League Update 3-22-16

Alright team, so here's our story thus far.

I played around with white/blue and white/black, before settling on white/blue. I took a *brief* look at whether or not I could make red/white aggro work and while it was intriguing it lacked about 4-5 playables and a really solid curve to make it workable in a sealed environment.

The Deck

(click to embiggen) Lands are 9x Plains, 7x Islands, 2x Wastes (five sources of colorless total)

I've played two matches so far and won both pretty handily, 2-0. It turns out that Planar Outburst is pretty incredible in sealed and the Seer's Lantern gets more threats on the board quickly.

Let's build a sealed deck!

Wizards came up with a pretty clever idea: a sealed league. Instead of having to block out 3-4 hours to do a draft, you can sign up for a pack of sealed and play 5 games any time you want. You can binge 5 in a row, or obsessively deckbuild for hours in-between games. Pretty clever!

Before we rip into virtual packs, let's review the basics of sealed

1) The decks are dominated by rare-bombs. So PLAY THEM.
2) As such, removal (always good) is even better and good counterspells become playable
3) Look to your gold cards for guides. They're often like mini-bombs.
4) Splash splash as you can.

 So let's take a look at my pool. (click to embiggen)

Draft Report: 3-5-16. When it's the deck you don't expect

Drafting at the Gamma Ray!

Super crowded today, which is always fun to see. I think they had four full pods running. as always, bottom left is Pack 1 Pick 1, going up and right (so Weapon Trainer was P1P6, Makindi Aeronaut P1P11)

Pack 1

Red/Green Dinosaur retroview

Learning some lessons from my R/G deck

R/G benefits from a colorless splash

    

R/G is *probably* a mid-range, dinosaur deck

Because of the temptation to colorless splash, that makes it hard to reliably count on a 2-3-4 aggro turnout. Also, R/G doesn't really have the tools (like support) to push through the small drops through any opposing 2/3s or 1/4s.

What this means: You probably want at least four quality 4-drops that can storm through defenses.


       
The Harvester Troll fit is pure theorycraft but a 4/5 body is far more necessary for your deck than a 2/1 and a 2/3, even at the risk of 2-for-1. Interestingly, this means that Saddleback Legac, a fantastic card, isn't *really* at home here.

As such, ramping and filtering are a priority

     

Yes yes, Ruin & Loam Larva aren't ramping but they make sure you don't miss land drops, and you REALLY don't want to miss land drops. Also these are the only two cards in the whole set that benefit from Wastes. Warden of Geometries is also moderately terrible but does count as ramping to your beefy 6/7 drops.

Dem 6/7 Drops

Ideally, the payoff is getting some strong beef at a reasonable discount.

         

Hypothetical deck layout

5-6x two/three drops (some early action & blockers. Scion Summoner, Netcaster Spider, Valakut Predator and the like)
4x four drops (preferably 4/3 or something else that demands at least a double block)
4-5x five+ drops (this is a lot but you need two...)

3x sources of ramp (hedron crawlers, seer's lantern, etc.)
5x spells (combat trick or two, removal)
18x lands (3 lands provide some colorless)

Ideally, you force your opponent to answer three, beefy threats: a real four drop (Goblin Freerunner doesn't count) and then two even BIGGER threats

Devalued Cards

     

Increase in value