Sweet Sealed Pool

While I’m typing things up, I wanted to record a recent sealed pool I had before it gets dismantled. I will point out that this pool came from some casual sealed practice which consisted of three packs of Ravnica, one pack Guildpact, and one pack Dissension. As you will see, it would not have been at all possible with a tournament pack.

Pool:

Red

Sabertooth Alley Cat (x 2)

Barbarian Riftcutter

Indentured Oaf

Greater Forgeling

Flash Conscription

Seismic Spike

Cackling Flames

Blue

Compulsive Research (x 2)

Grayscaled Gharial

Tidewater Minion

Vedalken Dismisser

Torch Drake

Silkwing Scout

Vigean Graftmage

Writ of Passage

Black

Dimir Machinations

Last Gasp (x 2)

Necromantic Thirst

Stinkweed Imp

Strands of Undeath

Douse in Gloom

Poisonbelly Ogre

Delirium Skeins

Entropic Eidolon

Slithering Shade

Green

Dryad’s Caress

Elves of Deep Shadow

Gather Courage (x 2)

Life from the Loam

Stone-Seeder Hierophant

Beastmaster’s Magemark

Verdant Eidolon

White

Blazing Archon

Boros Fury-Shield (x 2)

Caregiver

Conclave Equenaut

Faith’s Fetters

Harrier Griffin

Oathsworn Giant

Seed Spark

Votary of the Conclave

Absolver Thrull

Guardian’s Magemark

Aurora Eidolon

Haazda Exonerator

Gold

Dimir Infiltrator

Golgari Germination

Golgari Rotwurm

Perplex (x 2)

Pillory of the Sleepless

Schismotivate

Windreaver

Hybrid

Golgari Guildmage

Master Warcraft

Wild Cantor

Simic Guildmage

Artifacts

Terrarion

Izzet Signet

Rakdos Signet

Land

Steam Vents

Swamp (x 2 – foil)

Gruul Turf

Orzhova, Church of Deals

Azorius Chancery

This card pool is amazing. You can always debate, but I’d say that in my opinion I hit doubles of the three best commons in Ravnica: Faith’s Fetters, Compulsive Research, and Last Gasp. What’s more, I hit bomb rares with Blazing Archon, Master Warcraft, and Windreaver plus a money rare in Steam Vents. In addition to double Last Gasp and Faith’s Fetters, the removal suite also includes Cackling Flames, Douse in Gloom, Stinkweed Imp, and Pillory of the Sleepless. And just look at those six (or seven) fixers….

The deck practically built itself. Basically, I was centered in U/B/W for the removal and bombs and the fixers made it just too easy to toss in Cackling Flames (Torch Drake appreciated all the red sources as well). I initially had one or two cards different – I think the dismisser, Dimir Machinations (to transmute for removal), and either the thrull or one of the three cards that seems to be missing from the cardpool now that I can’t remember…but I found the curve a little top heavy so I tweaked the mana base to play the guildmages even though they are not stellar in this deck (and are basically monocolored since I have almost no green).

My strategy was to try to live through the first five or six turns and then start dropping bombs. All of the cheap removal (which actually does follow a reasonable curve) helps with this. There are few creatures in this deck and almost all of them have evasion so Master Warcraft usually ended up being a fog. I had never played it before though so I wanted to try it out (with all the red fixers it might have been better to just use Boros Fury-Shield, in hindsight). If the opponent has decent removal, things can really stall out. In that case, sadly, I think the best method of attack might be to sit on the Compulsive Researches (and maybe board in the machinations…and be careful about dredging the imp!) and try to mill for the win. I played Dimir Infiltrator because he has three toughness (which helps you live long enough to get to the late game) and can transmute for Last Gasp. Here is the decklist:

Land

Plains (6)

Swamp (4)

Island (2)

Gruul Turf

Steam Vents

Azorius Chancery

White (6)

Blazing Archon

Conclave Equenaut

Faith’s Fetters (x 2)

Oathsworn Giant

Harrier Griffin

Blue (5)

Compulsive Research (x 2)

Torch Drake

Silkwing Scout

Vigean Graftmage

Black (4)

Last Gasp (x 2)

Stinkweed Imp

Douse in Gloom

Red (1)

Cackling Flames

Gold (3)

Dimir Infiltrator

Pillory of the Sleepless

Windreaver

Hybrid (3)

Golgari Guildmage

Master Warcraft

Simic Guildmage

Artifact (3)

Terrarion

Izzet Signet

Rakdos Signet

The mana base looks jankier than I remember…but that was what was in my pile of cards and it worked well but I might have gotten lucky. I think my logic might have had something to do with the fact that I was running two karoos, two signets, plus deck thinning in Terrarion and double Compulsive Research. This logic seems pretty sound, but upon more experience I think I would still want at least sixteen lands in a mana hungry deck like this because karoos and signets really don’t help much in your opening hand. It wouldn’t be too hard to cut a guildmage or blue three-drop, though the thought of making the curve even heftier does hurt.

I mostly wanted to type this up because this sealed pool is pretty quirky and really makes you reevaluate many of the basic rules you have programmed into your brain as you crack your RGD sealed packs. As one last example, consider Golgari Guildmage. Usually this guy is one of the weakest of the hybrid two-drops, but in this deck you have to look at him as a weird split card. Early he is a vanilla bear that can slow an opposing creature rush or even bash a little bit. In the late game, he’s a seven mana sorcery that gets your mortified Blazing Archon back.

By the way, this deck actually stole a game from my R/G/w Warp World deck!