KTK: Team sealed pool

2 Responses to KTK: Team sealed pool

1. sameer says:

   December 7, 2014 at 6:59 am

   The first deck we built from the pool was a R/G deck, so we could play the 3 Savage Punches. There were 10 creatures with power >= 4 (plus Sarkhan the Dragonspeaker) to maximize those cards. The main question with that build was whether to splash any blue cards off Mystic Monastery and the pair of Rattleclaw Mystics, but we decided it wasn’t necessary.

   The other decks were less obvious. We tried to build an Abzan deck that had both End Hostilities and Duneblast so it could more reliably draw a board sweeper, and tried to build an aggressive Jeskai deck so we could play the Mantis Rider. However, there were sufficiently few red cards left for the Jeskai deck that red would have been a splash, and Mantis Rider is less exciting if you can’t consistently play it on turn 3, so we decided to switch to an aggressive W/B/r deck so we could play Butcher of the Horde instead. The Abzan deck then evolved into a Sultai deck so we had a home for the blue cards and so we could run the 3 Abominations of Gudul, and that deck splashed white for the Duneblast and an Abzan Charm.

   Unfortunately, we didn’t do very well with these decks. I only managed to win 1 game piloting the W/B/r deck, and we lost 2 of our 3 matches. Some lessons I learned from the experience:
   – Building 3 decks in an hour is difficult, so practice is valuable.
   – Jeskai Student is not good in most aggressive decks. (I’m not usually a fan of the card, but I let my teammates talk me into running it.)
   – Don’t try to build an aggressive deck without good 2-drops.
   – If you have a lot of mana fixing for a particular color combination, you should try really hard to make that color combination work. We had 3 Tranquil Coves so we should have tried harder to build a W/U or Jeskai deck.
   – Not having both board sweepers in the same deck turned out to be good. People expect to face more board sweepers in this format than in individual sealed deck, so they were less devastating when played, especially End Hostilities. And if they see a board sweeper in game 1, they’re going to play around it (or side in answers for it) in games 2/3, so you’re even less likely to be able to wreck them with it.

   Here are the decks we built. I will post how I would build this now in a separate comment tomorrow.

   R/G
   Creatures (15):
   – 2cc: 2 Rattleclaw Mystic, Temur Charger, Horde Ambusher
   – 3cc: Woolly Loxodon, 2 Alpine Grizzly, 3 Bloodfire Expert, Canyon Lurkers
   – 4cc: 3 Summit Prowler
   – 5cc: Sarkhan the Dragonspeaker

   Non-creatures (8):
   – 2cc: 3 Savage Punch
   – 3cc: Dragon Grip, Barrage of Boulders
   – 4cc: –
   – 5cc+: Incremental Growth, Arrow Storm, Crater’s Claws

   Lands (17): 3 Rugged Highlands, 7 Forests, 7 Mountains

   Sideboard (21):
   – Lands: Mystic Monastery
   – Artifacts: 2 Temur Banner
   – Green: 2 Awaken the Bear, 2 Highland Game, Naturalize, 2 Roar of Challenge
   – Red: Act of Treason, 2 Ainok Tracker, 2 Bloodfire Mentor, Bring Low, Goblinslide, Leaping Master, 4 Swift Kick, Tormenting Voice
   – Multicolor: Bear’s Companion, Master the Way, 2 Trap Essence

   W/B/r
   Creatures (14):
   – 1cc: Mardu Hateblade
   – 2cc: Ainok Bond-Kin, 2 Jeskai Student
   – 3cc: Abzan Falconer, Mardu Hordechief, 2 Krumar Bond-Kin
   – 4cc: 2 Alabaster Kirin, 2 Bellowing Saddlebrute, Butcher of the Horde
   – 5cc: Ankle Shanker

   Non-creatures (9):
   – 2cc: 2 Feat of Resistance, Debilitating Injury
   – 3cc: 2 Kill Shot, Mardu Charm
   – 4cc: Smite the Monstrous
   – 5cc: End Hostilities, Throttle

   Land (17): Nomad Outpost, Scoured Barrens, Bloodfell Caves, Bloodstained Mire, 7 Plains, 4 Swamps, 2 Mountains

   Sideboard (18):
   – White: Brave the Sands, Dazzling Ramparts, Jeskai Student, Rush of Battle, 2 Sage-Eye Harrier, Take Up Arms, Timely Hordemate, Venerable Lammasu, 2 War Behemoth
   – Black: Despise, Dutiful Return, Rakshasa’s Secret, Shambling Attendants, 2 Unyielding Krumar
   – Red: Shatter

   Sultai splashing white
   Creatures (17):
   – 1cc: Embodiment of Spring, Disowned Ancestor
   – 2cc: Dragon’s Eye Savants, Archer’s Parapet
   – 3cc: Glacial Stalker, Tuskguard Captain, Kheru Bloodsucker, 3 Abomination of Gudul
   – 4cc: Mistfire Weaver, Sultai Flayer, Longshot Squad, Mer-Ek Nightblade
   – 5cc+: Sagu Archer, Swarm of Bloodflies, Riverwheel Aerialists

   Non-creatures (5):
   – 2cc: Debilitating Injury
   – 3cc: Abzan Charm
   – 4cc: –
   – 5cc+: Throttle, Duneblast, Treasure Cruise

   Lands (18): Thornwood Falls, 2 Dismal Backwater, 3 Tranquil Cove, Blossoming Sands, 1 Island, 5 Swamps, 5 Forests

   Sideboard (29+):
   – Lands: Tomb of the Spirit Dragon
   – Artifacts: Abzan Banner, Cranial Archive, Jeskai Banner, 2 Lens of Clarity, 3 Sultai Banner
   – Blue: Blinding Spray, 2 Cancel, Crippling Chill, 2 Disdainful Stroke, 3 Force Away, 2 Mystic of the Hidden Way, Riverwheel Aerialists, Scaldkin, Singing Bell Strike, Treasure Cruise, Weave Fate, Whirlwind Adept
   – Black: Dutiful Return, Kheru Dreadmaw, Rakshasa’s Secret, 2 Rotting Mastodon
   – Green: Feed the Clan, 2 Naturalize, Sagu Archer, Scout the Borders
   – Multicolor: Efreet Weaponmaster, Mantis Rider, Secret Plans, Sultai Soothsayer, Warden of the Eye

   Reply
2. sameer says:

   December 9, 2014 at 9:31 am

   I’ve come up with a couple of different builds for this pool since last week. Each of them has had the R/G deck, but the other 2 decks have varied. For a while, I thought that the other 2 decks should be W/B/r/g (splashing for Butcher of the Horde, Mardu Charm, and Duneblast), and W/U control (with End Hostilities and blue bounce/countermagic). However, I believe I finally have the correct build for this pool. The color combinations for the 3 decks are the same as the original build, but several cards are swapped around. The W/B/r deck has much better early defense and the Sultai/w deck is heavy on morphs instead of outlast creatures.

   R/G
   This deck is mostly the same, but has different 2 drops since the Rattleclaw Mystics and Temur Charger were required by the morph deck. I also added an 18th land since this deck doesn’t do so well if it doesn’t get to 3 mana.

   Creatures (14):
   – 2cc: Horde Ambusher, 2 Highland Game
   – 3cc: 3 Bloodfire Expert, 2 Alpine Grizzly, Tuskguard Captain
   – 4cc: 3 Summit Prowler, Longshot Squad
   – 5cc: Sarkhan the Dragonspeaker

   Non-creatures (8):
   – 2cc: 3 Savage Punch
   – 3cc: Dragon Grip
   – 4cc: Bring Low
   – 5cc+: Arrow Storm, Incremental Growth, Crater’s Claws

   Lands (18): 3 Rugged Highlands, 8 Mountains, 7 Forests

   Sideboard (24):
   – Artifact: 2 Temur Banner
   – Red: 2 Ainok Tracker, Barrage of Boulders, 2 Bloodfire Mentor, Canyon Lurkers, Goblinslide, Shatter, 4 Swift Kick, Tormenting Voice
   – Green: 2 Awaken the Bear, Naturalize, 2 Roar of Challenge
   – Multicolor: Bear’s Companion, Master the Way, 2 Trap Essence

   Last cuts: Barrage of Boulders, Canyon Lurkers, 2 Awaken the Bear, 2 Roar of Challenge

   W/B/r
   This looks similar to the previous W/B/g deck, but they’re actually worlds apart. This deck recognizes that it isn’t aggressive and replaces the Jeskai Students, Krumar Bond-Kins, and Ankle Shanker with Disowned Ancestor, Kheru Bloodsucker, and Mer-Ek Nightblade. I also like the interaction between Butcher of the Horde, Kheru Bloodsucker, and Swarm of Bloodflies.

   Creatures (14):
   – 1cc: Mardu Hateblade, Disowned Ancestor
   – 2cc: Ainok Bond-Kin
   – 3cc: Abzan Falconer, Mardu Hordechief, Kheru Bloodsucker
   – 4cc: 2 Alabaster Kirin, Timely Hordemate, Mer-Ek Nightblade, 2 Bellowing Saddlebrute, Butcher of the Horde
   – 5cc: Swarm of Bloodflies

   Non-creatures (8):
   – 2cc: 2 Feat of Resistance, 2 Debilitating Injury
   – 3cc: 2 Kill Shot, Mardu Charm
   – 5cc: End Hostilities

   Land (18): Nomad Outpost, Mystic Monastery, Scoured Barrens, Bloodfell Caves, Bloodstained Mire, 7 Plains, 5 Swamps, 1 Mountain

   Sideboard (28):
   – Artifact: Cranial Archive, 2 Lens of Clarity
   – White: Brave the Sands, Dazzling Ramparts, 3 Jeskai Student, Rush of Battle, 2 Sage-Eye Harrier, Smite the Monstrous, Take Up Arms, Venerable Lammasu, 2 War Behemoth
   – Black: Despise, Dutiful Return, Rakshasa’s Secret, 2 Rotting Mastodon, Shambling Attendants, 2 Unyielding Krumar
   – Red: Act of Treason, Leaping Master
   – Green: Naturalize
   – Multicolor: Ankle Shanker

   Last cuts: Smite the Monstrous, War Behemoth, Dazzling Ramparts,

   Sultai splashing white
   This deck also looks similar to the previous Sultai deck but replaces the outlast creatures with morphs and Secret Plans. (I’m happy the Mystics of the Hidden Way are no longer sitting in the sideboard.) The remaining cards don’t need black mana early, so black becomes a splash, which helps the deck’s manabase. The Rattleclaw Mystics also fix mana and can lead to some explosive starts. The Duneblast/Kheru Bloodsucker/Swarm of Bloodflies combo is no longer available, but Duneblast is fine on its own, and interacts well with Sultai Flayer (the deck has 9 creatures with toughness >= 4). Treasure Cruise works quite well with the 3 Abomination of Gudul and Sultai Soothsayer, so I’ve added in the second copy.

   I’m sad to have all 3 copies of Force Away sitting in the sideboard, especially since you can replay the creature face down if needed, but the deck can’t take advantage of the tempo and has few creatures with power >= 4. I also considered running Tomb of the Spirit Dragon since the deck has 12 morphs, but I wanted to have enough ways to play Secret Plans on turn 2. Also, the deck will usually want to use spare mana to unmorph face down creatures anyway, so it is unlikely to want to use 3 mana to gain life, and we can always side in the card if needed.

   Creatures (16):
   – 1cc: Embodiment of Spring
   – 2cc: Dragon’s Eye Savants, 2 Rattleclaw Mystic, Temur Charger, Archer’s Parapet
   – 3cc: Mistfire Weaver, 2 Mystic of the Hidden Way, Glacial Stalker, Woolly Loxodon, 3 Abomination of Gudul
   – 4cc: Sultai Flayer
   – 5cc: Sultai Soothsayer

   Non-creatures (6):
   – 2cc: Secret Plans
   – 5cc+: 2 Throttle, Duneblast, 2 Treasure Cruise

   Lands (18): Thornwood Falls, 2 Dismal Backwater, 3 Tranquil Cove, Blossoming Sands, 2 Islands, 6 Forests, 3 Swamps

   Sideboard (35):
   – Land: Tomb of the Spirit Dragon
   – Artifact: Abzan Banner, Jeskai Banner, 3 Sultai Banner
   – Blue: Blinding Spray, 2 Cancel, Crippling Chill, 2 Disdainful Stroke, 3 Force Away, 2 Riverwheel Aerialists, Scaldkin, Singing Bell Strike, Weave Fate, Whirlwind Adept
   – Black: Dutiful Return, Kheru Dreadmaw, 2 Krumar Bond-Kin, Rakshasa’s Secret
   – Green: Feed the Clan, Naturalize, 2 Sagu Archer, Scout the Borders
   – Multicolor: Abzan Charm, Efreet Weaponmaster, Mantis Rider, Warden of the Eye

   Last cuts: Tomb of the Spirit Dragon, 3 Force Away, 2 Sagu Archer, 2 Krumar Bond-Kins

   Reply

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