MTG Salvation

I'd go U/R/b splashing for Olivia.

Blue is just very good here, red is mediocre but complements U by giving it some agressive creatures while U controls and feeds the GY for a giant zombie or just waits for Olivia.

You can build a UW deck full of playables, but it just has so few really high-impact playables that I wouldn't expect it to end up with a good record. When drafting, I am all about building the solid, consistent deck over the high-risk/high-reward builds, but with this sealed pool I think we need to take some risks if we want a chance of placing near the top of our event.

So here's how I would start (this is actually how I approach sealed pools IRL): make a list of the cards I actively want to play in each color. Remember, there will be cards that I auto-play in each color that don't make the list; these are (approximately, not an exact science) the cards that pull me into each color.


Then I'd look at the colors I most want to play (based on how many cards I want to play in that color/how much I want to play each), and consider whether the other playables make the color deep enough to play.

A couple things jump out at me: green is deep in both playables and things I actually want to play, white has a lot of playables but the cards I want from it are splashable removal spells (Avacyn's Pilgrim + Fixing Artifact make a W splash pretty easy), and black is terrible, so if I want to play Olivia I'd need to be RX splashing black.

In the end, I'd either build RGb (the riskier deck that lets me play by far the best bomb) or UGw (the deck with the highest average power). If I have time a bit later tonight I may post up some decklists (and I won't know for sure if those are the right colors to build until I actually sit down and do it, but I suspect that UGw is where I want to be).

Olivia would be nice to splash for, but there's just not enough red or black to justify her inclusion when you have lots of great blue stuff. I would go blue green just because of the lack of cards in red/black/white.

It would suck to pull such a strong mythic without support, but sometimes it happens.

I hope I play among people who share the same mindset as those who think the UW pool is viable enough to win, because I'll probably win thanks to my RG stompy deck that doesn't care about such frivolous cards like Claustrophobia as their removal and Deranged Assistant when they have only 1 good creature in the deck to ramp towards.

Quote from Thomper2112

I hope I play among people who share the same mindset as those who think the UW pool is viable enough to win, because I'll probably win thanks to my RG stompy deck that doesn't care about such frivolous cards like Claustrophobia as their removal and Deranged Assistant when they have only 1 good creature in the deck to ramp towards.

I agree that the UW deck probably doesn't have what it takes to place well, but you're very wrong that Claustrophobia is "frivolous." It's basically an Arrest, i.e., absolutely first-pick-quality removal. Honestly, double Claustrophobia is easily the best thing about the blue pool here.

I wonder if this is the kind of pool where you'd want to make 2 decks and swap them out during sideboarding based on your opponent's deck.

I'm not seeing what's so awful about the U/W combo. It's got evasive beats and plenty to stall the ground with.

Claustrophobia's no Arrest, though. It's a really playable card, but Arrest locks down activated abilities too. Basically, I'd much rather have Arrest out against Olivia than Claustrophobia.

U/W..Not close.

Quote from fnord

I wonder if this is the kind of pool where you'd want to make 2 decks and swap them out during sideboarding based on your opponent's deck.

Wait... I've never played Sealed before... I can just make 2 decks?

You make your primary deck, then swap in an entirely different build (since it's part of your sideboard), which can also involve basic land swapping. In essence, two decks, but you strictly speaking have a primary and a sideboard.

honestly w/g looks really good in this bunch, champion is no small fry and the doomed travelers are great plus w/g has a good chunk of removal and great late game bomb in the kindercatchs

Quote from Dire Wombat

I agree that the UW deck probably doesn't have what it takes to place well, but you're very wrong that Claustrophobia is "frivolous." It's basically an Arrest, i.e., absolutely first-pick-quality removal. Honestly, double Claustrophobia is easily the best thing about the blue pool here.

I call it frivolous when that's all my opponent is packing for removal because he/she just HAD to be blue for that card, and I just happen to have 2 Bramblecrushes.

Quote from Thomper2112

I call it frivolous when that's all my opponent is packing for removal because he/she just HAD to be blue for that card, and I just happen to have 2 Bramblecrushes.

That's all U/W has for removal? I didn't realize Avacynian Priest, Bonds of Faith, Ghostly Possession, Rebuke and Blazing Torch weren't removal spells.

U/W is clearly the best way to go here, avoiding the skilltest trap of a bomb in your bad colors. Also, you get a great Human tribal subtheme, with Champion and Elder Cathar (and Dagger) feeding into it.


I'm playing Think Twice as a 41st card in the deck. I could easily cut Occultist if I wanted to, but it's a Human and has some synergy with Apprentice and Doomed Traveler. I like Apprentice in this deck, because I don't mind saccing Travelers at all, and Unruly Mob loves him.

Quote from KPDaly16

Ghostly Possession

Hardly a removal spell.

Sure, you stop it from attacking. But in return you've given your opponent a really good wall which can block your best creature each turn, even if it flies. It's kinda like turning your opponent's creature into a tapper. And it doesn't stop abilities, even ones which do damage.

And sure, you have the option of using it on your own creature to make a wall, but you risk getting 2-for-1d by a removal spell.

I can see situations when I'd play it. It's removal in mill.dec and is reasonable if you're absolutely desperate for removal. But those conditions don't apply here.

Quote from Aradon Templar

I'm not seeing what's so awful about the U/W combo. It's got evasive beats and plenty to stall the ground with.

Claustrophobia's no Arrest, though. It's a really playable card, but Arrest locks down activated abilities too. Basically, I'd much rather have Arrest out against Olivia than Claustrophobia.

Oh, I don't think UW is awful by any means. It has fliers and removal and it should be reasonably solid. But if you want to win the whole event against better, bomb-heavy pools without bombs of your own, I think that you need to take some risks. Either build fast aggro and steal wins early (don't think this pool can) or get greedy and play more colors. That way you can maximize your density of removal, and threatening creatures to press your advantage from that removal.

We may also disagree about some of the white cards. I think the only really good white is the removal and Voiceless Spirit. Champion of the Parish, Elder Cathar, and Abbey Griffin are okay but I don't think they're anything too special. Unruly Mob, Ghostly Possession, and Doomed Traveler seem bad. If you disagree, then that may explain our build preferences.

Basically, by going UGw instead of UW, the only really good white card (IMO) that I miss out on is Voiceless Spirit. I get to play blue removal and fliers, green's deeper creature base, and the the three best white cards (the removal). The mana gets a bit wonky, but I have multiple fixers in that configuration. I just think taking that risk gives us the best shot of going all the way.

Admittedly, that also gives us a better shot of flaming out early due to mana issues, so YMMV.

Not the überpool at all. I´d go for RW and splash black for Olivia.

White offer the most removal, Bonds, Rebuke and the Tapper. White offers also some flyers and a good flashback pumpspell.

Red offer cheap creatures with First strike and a good power, Scourge of Geier is not bad and Kruin outlaw works well with the Ironsmith.

Artifacts make up a lot in this pool. 2 Torches offer removal the rig hunts a bigger flyer and the dagger gives the flyers and first strikers the power they need to be really annoying. Olivia loses the control vampire option most of the time but the ping and her flying ability will be good enough in most cases to simply win the game on her own.

The problem of the build is obvious the low toughness of most creatures. Most creature offer only 1 toughness and a opponent with 3 geistflames will probably cut your head off in a short time.

You could also go for GRb but I´d miss the removal a lot and flyers are not bad either.

White weak? White could almost make a complete Winnie deck on its own! And red has cards that complement that strategy. Sure, blue has some strong cards but they are not cohesive with the fast army that we should be getting from this pool. So WR is it. Add two swamps, amulet and Olivia (and maybe noble?) and you're gold.

Quote from fnord

Hardly a removal spell.

Sure, you stop it from attacking. But in return you've given your opponent a really good wall which can block your best creature each turn, even if it flies. It's kinda like turning your opponent's creature into a tapper. And it doesn't stop abilities, even ones which do damage.

And sure, you have the option of using it on your own creature to make a wall, but you risk getting 2-for-1d by a removal spell.

I can see situations when I'd play it. It's removal in mill.dec and is reasonable if you're absolutely desperate for removal. But those conditions don't apply here.

I'm not a huge fan of Possession either, but it *can* act as removal, and that's the point I was making. And honestly, you could easily sideboard this deck into a mill deck against players that wouldn't benefit by it, by adding the Curse of the Bloody Tome, 2x Dream Twist and Runic Repetition, which makes Possession even better.

I'm curious about a comment and people's overall strategy in sealed. Do you really think it's better to play a risky build over a more consistent but non-bomby build? In my experience so far, I'd go with the consistent build unless there were very few rounds. I've routinely beaten people with risky builds because they'd stumble on mana. I would think that to hope that the power will make up for it is wishful thinking. In all cases though, perfect records always turn out to be idiotic bomby pools anyway, so I'd prefer to go for the consistent run to place higher without winning it all.

Thought?

(So, yeah, I'd go U/W or maybe U/G. Also, having 7+ 5 drops+ is a recipe for disaster, but I could be wrong, not havin gplayed Innistrad, though I would think you'd get steamrolled by wolves and vampires.)

RBW. Olivia Voldaren + Removal's as good as it gets.

Quote from pierrebai

I'm curious about a comment and people's overall strategy in sealed. Do you really think it's better to play a risky build over a more consistent but non-bomby build?

It depends.

In general, I'd go for the consistent build with less overall power. But I'd go the risky route in two situations:

1. If the difference in power is big enough.

2. If the consistent build is weak enough that I think that my only reasonable chance of making top8 is playing the risky build and getting lucky.