It's 1 card though. The thing about bombs is you usually have to wait 5-7 turns before you can cast them. Until then, your commons and uncommons will play a huge role in whether you're ahead or behind when you cast your bomb.
Having a great 6 drop is, you know, great. It's a lot less great if your opponent is holding removal, bounce or a counterspell. Bombs are always good in core set limited, but you're still going to lose if your deck is junk and a Soul of Theros
Sealed is and always will be more bomb-centric than draft. Expect it to matter less as the number of rares opened go down and the synergy decks become more streamlined.
The Soul cycle and planeswalkers are powerful, but I actually think the non-mythic rares are pretty bad. Only about a third of them are potential first picks, and another third are outright unplayable. Don't fear the six drop; fear the deck that can kill you before you play your sixth land.
Another thing to remember is that Sealed, as a format, tends to be bomb-dominated to a larger extent than draft. After all, all other things being equal, twice as many rares are going to be opened in sealed pools as the same number of people drafting would get. So with that larger number of rares, combined with the random nature of the rest of the cards you get, and more people are going to end up with decks that are defined by a few bombs, and the better constructed of those are going to win games.
Eh, not really. My rare pull was pretty awful - I got 2 Yawgmoth's Tombs, the +3/+3 for dragons, a painland in colors I wasn't in, the Kalonian Twingrove (which is good, but was not in my colors), and Cruel Sadist (the one non-promo rare I actually ran, and it's fine but not amazing). I went 3-1. I did have 5 guys with intimidate (2 acursed spirits, 3 of the red 2/2 intimidate) and pretty decent removal and I was often able to win either through bombs or before they could hit. The guy who beat me had pretty much the worst case scenario bomb - hornet queen (2 of them no less). I remember the first time it hit I had 2 pieces of removal in hand and I felt pretty good about my ability to handle any bomb he dropped...except that one.
The dominance of bombs have been a staple of limited for a long time in my view. It is difficult to rely on a bomb to show up strong in every match, though, and it can be helpful to know ahead of time the bombs in the format and try to find a way to address them within your desk (such as counterspells and removal). That said, some sets are more bomb-centric than others, and personally I prefer a set which is not very bomb-arific.
The set has some very aggressive creatures, so I think that bombs, while very difficult to deal with in some of the colors, can be beaten by good, old-fashioned curving out.
A competitor at the prerelease lamented to me: "I miss the days of Prerelease Sealed when they didn't put a Dragon in every pool."
It's a fair point though. Sealed is never more popular than release time, and the new promos skew perceptions toward "Rares are all that matter" by making certain rare bombs more prevalent than uncommons. I guess the Blue M15 promo doesn't count, but then again I didn't see a single person pick Blue this weekend...
There were a lot more aggro decks in this sealed prerelease than a normal set. Two out of my four sealed decks were RW aggro with Preeminent Captain and Goblin Kaboomist as the only rares, splitting top 4 and top 2.
In top 8 I played against mono-red aggro a couple times.
I myself have been on the receiving end of Ob Nixilis, Unshackled and have heard a report about it just winning a whole 30 person event.
I'm also hearing reports of the souls just being totally bonkers when they've been pulled.
Does it matter how well your deck is made or is M15 limited just going to be about the power of the rare cards?
R Norin the Wary: I've Got a Bad Feeling About This
UG Thrasios & Kydele: Knowledge is Power
RG Borborygmos Enraged: The Breaking of the World
BG The Gitrog Monster: All Glory to the Hypnotoad
WUR Zedruu the Greathearted: Endless Possibilities, One Outcome
WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftain: What's Dead May Never Die
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The Soul cycle and planeswalkers are powerful, but I actually think the non-mythic rares are pretty bad. Only about a third of them are potential first picks, and another third are outright unplayable. Don't fear the six drop; fear the deck that can kill you before you play your sixth land.
Cubetutor Link
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It's a fair point though. Sealed is never more popular than release time, and the new promos skew perceptions toward "Rares are all that matter" by making certain rare bombs more prevalent than uncommons. I guess the Blue M15 promo doesn't count, but then again I didn't see a single person pick Blue this weekend...
In top 8 I played against mono-red aggro a couple times.
The only bombs I lost to were Hornet Queen 3-4 games, Nissa, Worldwaker 2 games, and Siege Dragon 1 game out of 22 rounds.
My BR sealed deck with 2 Burning Angers won almost every game because of Burning Anger or the 2 Nightfire Giants.