Saturday, February 26, 2011

MBS Release Sealed # 2

Hi again! It seems from the comments that people really do prefer the live recordings of the matches. The result is videos that are way longer, but otherwise i don't mind. The video for round 2 got corrupted unfortunately (I won!) so it jumps from round 1 to round 3.










Looking back:

If I could rebuild the deck, I'd play the version with black in it that I sideboarded into. We have the classic argument of power vs consistency here, but I don't think that's the whole story. Usually we think of consistency in terms of being reliably able to cast your spells and hit your curve. I think in this format, consistency can also be defined in terms of being able to consistently be able to cast your bombs and deal with your opponents bombs. Curving out is all fun and games until someone drops a carniflex demon, or a hordesmelter dragon, or a battlesphere, or a massacre wurm, or a sunblast angel.... you get the picture. I think its more likely that a game in sealed in this format will be decided by an unanswered bomb hitting the table then who can curve out better in the first 4-5 turns.

So how does that apply to my build? I think deciding to run certarch over spread the sickness is mistake number 1. Even if I don't go heavy into the black, while I can certainly cast certarch mroe consistently, spread the sickness does what I actually want it to do (ie. kill bombs) waaaaaay more consistently. There is simply no question that spread the sickness needed to be in the deck considering the overall lack of removal in the pool.

Mistake number 2 was undervaluing the black in general. I got a bit blinded by the dragon and corrupted conscience, and as we saw I could very greedily include them and the black anyways. For the record, there is  no way I cut corrupted conscience or hordesmelter-dragon from a main deck unless its for something better. If black had a carniflex demon or massacre wurm then maybe I might consider cutting the conscience or the dragon and play two colors.

Keep in mind, even though I say I'd start with the really greedy three color deck, that doesn't mean that I wouldn't sideboard into the more (traditionally) consistent 2 color deck. It just means that I think you're more likely to play against a bombcentric deck then an aggro deck (that is actually any good, most aggro decks I've played seem pretty terrible!).  As we saw in round 4, against a particularly aggressive deck, especially one that doesn't seem to be defined by any ridiculous bombs, the extra removal is not as important as just keeping up pace on the board. Especially since the cards you are going to need to use the removal on are on average going to be way worse, especially if you stumble on mana before you're able to cast them.

4 comments:

  1. I think B/R was the right build from the start. Corrupted Conscience is a great card, but it doesn't outweigh the excellent value you can get out of rager + morbid plunder (which is one of the best cards for winning an attrition war).

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  2. I agree Black Red was much stronger than Blue Red. Corrupted Conscience is good but Rager helps you draw to your bombs and gives you a body for your sword, Morbid Plunder is just nuts especially in sealed (bringing back two Ragers with it just feels dirty), and Spread the Sickness gives you a piece of catch-all removal plus it will randomly help your Tumble Magnet.

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  3. Cool pool with an interesting last round. Very well done, and your opponent's deck showed off how ridiculous Sylvok lifestaff can be when played in the right deck... It must have gained him 20 life in the last game.

    Just a sidenote... When you were doing a block/bounce in game 2 with your Neurok Replica, you may as well block the Copper Myr with something that is NOT your Neurok Replica, as you'd rather kill that then a generic myr token (and you know he's playing Sylvok Replica in his deck... he used one already, though he may have more than 1)... This is obviously a really tiny niggle, and wouldn't have made a difference in that game, but thought I'd point it out.

    Thanks for video!

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  4. The very last game could have been won at 31mn. You let everything pss you go down to 1 and drop the myr galvanizer and swing for 10 of which he can only block 2 and die.

    Now if his last card is a steel sabotage you loose but it is the only card that can get you.

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