RTR Sealed #1

This is my pool from the Return to Ravnica 16-man sealed deck release queue. Since the PTQ season and the upcoming Grand Prix in Philadelphia is sealed deck, I think it's worth it to try and analyze sealed pools so I'll try and post these in addition to the drafts.

Right away,you can see that green is the deepest individual color, and G/W has the highest impact multicolor cards (with the R/B cards right behind them). There are lots of red cards but most of them are mediocre. I think a G/W core makes the most sense.




Here's what a G/W core would look like. I'm pretty sure those are all the cards I'd definitely play. The other options are to the right. You could go straight G/W, or splash blue and get Skymark Roc (who is very good) and Isperia Skywatch (who is OK) as well as a keyrune for fun.



Just out of curiosity here's what a R/B shell would look like. It's clear that the creatures aren't all that good, and that there aren't enough cards in straight R and B to support a deck; you would have to splash a color, and neither of the colors offer anything that makes the R/B cards particularly exciting.



This was the deck I finally settled on. I didn't really like any of the other 2 drops (the beetles or the 1/3 flyers), and decided that the blue creatures would be pretty easy to fit in. I'm not sure about starting Sundering Growth, but I figure I'd rather be prepared in sealed, and another populate card for my megabomb is always welcome.

Round 1

I wish I could say round 1 was interesting, but I got destroyed by a turn 3 Pack Rat game 1 and turn 2 Pack Rat game 2. My draws in both games were very good. I was on the draw in game 1 so my turn 2 Vitu Ghazi Guildmage, turn 6 Armada Wurm was too slow. Game 2 I had Skymark Roc on the play turn 4 and it was too slow because the rats were already 3/3 by that point and I had no other way to remove them (and no guys who could take them out in combat). I even boarded in Pithing Needle but I didn't draw it.

After reviewing the replay for game 2, there's a chance that I could have taken a different line that would be successful if my opponent was careless. My opening hand (which I immediately kept) was this:



My draw steps, in order, were Plains, Knightly Valor, Golgari Decoy, Selesnya Charm, Plains.

My first thought was to hold the arrester for turn 3 in case he had t2 pack rat, but that ended up not really doing anything since he still just activated it EOT on my t4 and again on his turn 4 to bring it out of roc range. If I play the arrester turn 2 and common bond it turn 3, then I have a guy who still deters the first wave of rat attacks and easily trades with one down the line, possibly keeping them under control to make it easier to roc out. As played, I ended up playing a defensive roc on t4 and common bonding it t5 to take out a rat (after missing my drop for the valor), and then choosing to knightly valor the arrester, but my life was so low by that point that I died to two removals (stab wound & ultimate price) + an attack with huge rats. It might not have mattered what I did since I would likely lose to those removals either way, but still.

Round 2

I kept a sketchy hand game 1 (4 lands, Axebane Guardian, Common Bond, Giant Growth) and got punished I guess because after I drew two Azorius Arresters, I drew mostly lands and died to Righteous Authority once he drew out of his mana screw.

Game 2 was more like it. I drew Armada Wurm and Eyes in the Skies, and was able to keep (one of his two copies of) Righteous Authority in check with Keening Apparition.

Game 3, he boarded into a R/B deck on the play and opened Slitherhead, Grim Roustabout and stopped playing lands after 5, so my life total was always in danger and none of my good cards lived through Augur Spree. Kind of annoying since I kept in Sundering Growth, anticipating lots of juicy targets, only to have it sit dead in my hand the whole time vs. his red/black deck.

Round 3

My opponent in round 3 had a U/G/W deck. It didn't seem too thrilling, except he had a Cyclonic Rift, which was annoying to play against. Fortunately he blew it way too early in game 1, and I was able to rebuild quickly and beat him with Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage.

In game 2, I never had much of an offense, and was too proud to burn my Savage Surge to be able to force my Azorius Arrester through his Concordia Pegasus. As a result, I died to an obvious Cyclonic Rift that killed all my 2/2 knight tokens and let him cancel my guildmage. I'm disappointed with how I played that game.

Game 3 I had two early 2 drops and was able to force them through his creatures with all my tricks while he never played a fourth land and never risked his Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage (that he couldn't activate) in combat.

Round 4

My opponent in round 4 had an underwhelming U/W deck. I got stuck on mana in game 1, but ended up winning with a couple of 2 drops and a Common Bond to force them through his Hussar Patrol.

Game 2, I just quietly ramped up to Armada Wurm and he didn't have a way to deal with two 5/5s, let alone the copies I was going to populate.

Overall, I went 2-2. I'm not pleased with this mediocre result because I've been running hot in this format so far and all my modo results have been stellar, but I guess it had to happen eventually. I do think that I built the right deck for my pool and got most of the cards right. I think it was reasonably straightforward but I'd love to hear any other opinions.