First Blog Entry!
Posted 2 Weeks Ago at 11:38 PM by Zack Hall
Hey to everyone at tcgplayer!
My name is Zack Hall, and although I've wanted to write about magic for awhile now, for some reason it took me a long time to get around to it. After considering my various options for where to write, I settled on tcgplayer because I like the freedom blogging gives me!
More about myself:
Pro Tour player, striving for the next level. While I can't transform myself into Satio overnight, I'm trying my hardest for the next best thing.
I love all forms of magic, be it limited, block, extended, even Legacy/Vintage every once in awhile. I have a cube, have owned 5+ EDH decks, and am always down for any type of game.
CONTENT TIME!
Because I'm not qualified for Rome (yet!), I haven't been playing type 2 as much as I would have otherwise been. That said, I've been playing a hell of a lot of sealeds. While, no, I didn't breakthe format, I might be able to offer some insights that may not be apparent to someone who hasn't practiced as much.
1. Attack,
2. Attack,
3. Attack!
No, really. As much as I love blocking, this isn't the format for it. The offensive cards are amazing, as is the nature of landfall.
A corollary to this is that you have to be either playing 2 colors, or be playing 2 with a splash ONLY IF you have fixing to justify it. This isn't M10 where you can play fireball and 2 mountains and be happy with it. Oftentimes in this format you're dead by turn 6, and there's no room for error.
There are no hard and fast rules for when a splash is justified, but here are some guidelines:
If your deck has little to no removal, a splash is almost mandatory. If it can't deal with a bomby rare like Hellkite Charger or Sea Gate Loremaster, you definitely misbuilt and should have either splashed some removal, or been a different color entirely!
If you have a Khalni Gem, on color Refuge, on color sacland or Harrow. These are all a 'free' source of a splash color, as you would be playing them anyway or their drawback is marginal.
Those are really the only hard and fast rules I use on whether or not to splash in a sealed deck. If I have a tight, aggressive curve but have a Gem and 2 disfigure I want to splash... well, there are no rules or guidelines to help there, just intuition and trial and error. I ask myself, "Is my deck consistent and aggressive enough to be able to beat <insert absurdly overpowered mythic rare here>?" If I'm not sure orthe answer is no, I usually err on the side of the splash.
Another common deckbuilding mistake I see people making is they forsake their bombs/ better cards for a more streamlined curve. While this is sometimes correct, it's still a sealed deck event, and card advantage does matter. While you shouldn't skew your deck to extremes to play your rares, it certainly helps. Consider playing a weaker color if it contains a bomb (Emeria Angel would be a perfect example, a card which uncontested, winsthe game).
4. Attack!
That's all I hae for now, just a few tips that might be able to help you win more matches in Zendikar sealed deck.
I'm excited to write about a topic not too many people talk about next time, make sure to check back later this week!
Thanks for reading,
Zack
My name is Zack Hall, and although I've wanted to write about magic for awhile now, for some reason it took me a long time to get around to it. After considering my various options for where to write, I settled on tcgplayer because I like the freedom blogging gives me!
More about myself:
Pro Tour player, striving for the next level. While I can't transform myself into Satio overnight, I'm trying my hardest for the next best thing.
I love all forms of magic, be it limited, block, extended, even Legacy/Vintage every once in awhile. I have a cube, have owned 5+ EDH decks, and am always down for any type of game.
CONTENT TIME!
Because I'm not qualified for Rome (yet!), I haven't been playing type 2 as much as I would have otherwise been. That said, I've been playing a hell of a lot of sealeds. While, no, I didn't breakthe format, I might be able to offer some insights that may not be apparent to someone who hasn't practiced as much.
1. Attack,
2. Attack,
3. Attack!
No, really. As much as I love blocking, this isn't the format for it. The offensive cards are amazing, as is the nature of landfall.
A corollary to this is that you have to be either playing 2 colors, or be playing 2 with a splash ONLY IF you have fixing to justify it. This isn't M10 where you can play fireball and 2 mountains and be happy with it. Oftentimes in this format you're dead by turn 6, and there's no room for error.
There are no hard and fast rules for when a splash is justified, but here are some guidelines:
If your deck has little to no removal, a splash is almost mandatory. If it can't deal with a bomby rare like Hellkite Charger or Sea Gate Loremaster, you definitely misbuilt and should have either splashed some removal, or been a different color entirely!
If you have a Khalni Gem, on color Refuge, on color sacland or Harrow. These are all a 'free' source of a splash color, as you would be playing them anyway or their drawback is marginal.
Those are really the only hard and fast rules I use on whether or not to splash in a sealed deck. If I have a tight, aggressive curve but have a Gem and 2 disfigure I want to splash... well, there are no rules or guidelines to help there, just intuition and trial and error. I ask myself, "Is my deck consistent and aggressive enough to be able to beat <insert absurdly overpowered mythic rare here>?" If I'm not sure orthe answer is no, I usually err on the side of the splash.
Another common deckbuilding mistake I see people making is they forsake their bombs/ better cards for a more streamlined curve. While this is sometimes correct, it's still a sealed deck event, and card advantage does matter. While you shouldn't skew your deck to extremes to play your rares, it certainly helps. Consider playing a weaker color if it contains a bomb (Emeria Angel would be a perfect example, a card which uncontested, winsthe game).
4. Attack!
That's all I hae for now, just a few tips that might be able to help you win more matches in Zendikar sealed deck.
I'm excited to write about a topic not too many people talk about next time, make sure to check back later this week!
Thanks for reading,
Zack
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