KTK: PTQ Sealed Pool #3
November 18, 2014 2 Comments
I drove down to Portland for a Sealed PTQ this weekend. My pool was quite good and I think I came up with the right build, but I lost one match to bad luck (I drew twice as many lands as spells in game 3) and another to misplays when facing down a Pearl Lake Ancient. I dropped at 4-2 so I could get back at a reasonable hour. How would you have built this pool? (The pool is also posted on TappedOut, for those that find that easier to work with.) Post your build in the comments and I’ll do the same later this week.
Artifact
Abzan Banner
Cranial Archive
Mardu Banner
Sultai Banner
Temur Banner
White
Ainok Bond-Kin
Defiant Strike
Sage-Eye Harrier
2 Salt Road Patrol
3 Smite the Monstrous
2 Suspension Field
War Behemoth
Blue
Blinding Spray
Crippling Chill
Disdainful Stroke
Embodiment of Spring
Glacial Stalker
Scaldkin
Set Adrift
2 Singing Bell Strike
Treasure Cruise
Waterwhirl
Black
Debilitating Injury
Disowned Ancestor
Dutiful Return
Molting Snakeskin
Necropolis Fiend
Rakshasa’s Secret
Rotting Mastodon
Shambling Attendants
2 Unyielding Krumar
Red
Act of Treason
2 Barrage of Boulders
Bloodfire Expert
Bloodfire Mentor
2 Bring Low
Canyon Lurkers
Swift Kick
Trumpet Blast
2 Valley Dasher
War-Name Aspirant
Green
Alpine Grizzly
Highland Game
Kin-Tree Warden
Sagu Archer
Savage Punch
2 Scout the Borders
Tusked Colossodon
Tuskguard Captain
Windstorm
Woolly Loxodon
Multicolor
2 Abomination of Gudul
2 Abzan Charm
Chief of the Scale
Highspire Mantis
Mardu Charm
Mardu Roughrider
Mindswipe
Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
Sultai Ascendancy
Temur Ascendancy (foil)
Temur Charm
Warden of the Eye
Land
Bloodstained Mire
2 Dismal Backwater
Jungle Hollow
Opulent Palace
2 Scoured Barrens
Swiftwater Cliffs
Windswept Heath
MTGDissected 
I built a W/B/G/u deck from this pool.
Creatures (14):
– 1cc: Disowned Ancestor
– 2cc: Ainok Bond-Kin, Highland Game, Chief of the Scale
– 3cc: Tuskguard Captain, Alpine Grizzly, Woolly Loxodon, Sagu Archer, Glacial Stalker, 2 Abomination of Gudul
– 4cc: 2 Salt Road Patrol
– 5cc+: Necropolis Fiend
Spells (9):
– 1cc: Defiant Strike
– 2cc: 2 Suspension Field, Savage Punch, Debilitating Injury
– 3cc: Rakshasa’s Secret, 2 Abzan Charm
– 4cc+: Treasure Cruise
Land (17): Opulent Palace, Windswept Heath, 2 Scoured Barrens, Jungle Hollow, 2 Dismal Backwater, 4 Plains, 4 Forests, 2 Swamps
I feel the color choice is fairly obvious for this pool. Blue and red both lack strong creatures, whereas Abzan provides access to removal, manafixing, and a reasonable creature curve. The blue splash also seems fairly obvious given the presence of 3 nonbasic lands that produce blue mana, and since most of the blue cards you’d want to play are either morphs or late game cards anyway.
I do feel I made a couple of minor mistakes in my build:
– Disowned Ancestor can rarely be played on turn 1 because I only have 2 lands that can produce black mana on turn 1. This is not terrible, but I should have at least considered playing Sage-Eye Harrier or Kin-Tree Warden instead.
– The deck needed another blue source, perhaps an Island instead of the 2nd Swamp since that deck would still have had 7 sources of black mana.
– I should probably have sided in Disdainful Stroke more often than I did (along with an Island, if playing the version with no Islands).
I dropped at 4-2 since I couldn’t make top 8 at that point, and there were no prizes for placing outside the top 8. My first loss came to manaflood in game 3 when I drew 10 lands vs. 5 spells on a 4-land hand. My second loss was due to misplays when staring down a Pearl Lake Ancient on turn 7 in consecutive games.
showed a friend this pool yesterday and he came up with a Sultai build, primarily because he values Singing Bell Strike much higher than I do, considering them roughly equivalent to the pair of Suspension Fields in my Abzan build. He also thinks more highly of Sidisi Brood Tyrant than I do.
When I tried to build a Sultai deck from the pool, here’s what I came up with:
Creatures (13):
– 1cc: Embodiment of Spring, Disowned Ancestor
– 2cc: Highland Game
– 3cc: Tuskguard Captain, Alpine Grizzly, Woolly Loxodon, Sagu Archer, Glacial Stalker, 2 Abomination of Gudul
– 4cc: Sididi Brood Tyrant
– 5cc+: Necropolis Fiend, Shambling Attendants
Spells (9):
– 2cc: Disdainful Stroke, Savage Punch, Debilitating Injury
– 3cc: Crippling Chill, Rakshasa’s Secret, Sultai Ascendancy
– 6cc+: Set Adrift, Waterwhirl, Treasure Cruise
Land (18): Opulent Palace, 2 Dismal Backwater, Jungle Hollow, 5 Islands, 6 Forests, 3 Swamps
It is true that this build is able to run Sultai Ascendant and Sidisi Brood Tyrant, both really good cards, and that it is easier to pay the morph cost for the blue and multicolor morphs. However, comparing this build to my Abzan deck reveals that we essentially replaced 4 removal spells, 2 2-drops, and 2 Salt Road Patrols with 4 pseudo-removal spells (Disdainful Stroke, Crippling Chill, Set Adrift, and Waterwhirl), Embodiment of Spring, Shambling Attendants, and the 2 Sultai “bombs”. Also, we swapped the Defiant Strike for an 18th land. This gives us less of an early game and few ways to deal with our opponent’s bombs. And our own bombs don’t win games quickly enough that we can avoid having to face our opponent’s bombs.