For this week’s article, I’ve decided to run through an Innistrad Sealed release event on Magic Online. I don’t claim to be an expert in the format, and this is only the second Sealed I’ve done. I want to share with you guys my learning process when I start playing a new format.

Let’s start things off with the Sealed pool; click on the image below to view a larger version.

Obviously, the first thing I do is look at the rares to see if I opened anything worth money. It’s all junk in that regard. Let’s look at each color. (For each image, click on it to see a larger version.)

White

White offers a couple removal spells, some decent creatures, and a flying boom-boom.

Blue

Blue looks very solid. Grasp of Phantoms is among the best spells in the format, and we have a lot of solid flyers. The lack of enablers for the Stitched Drake and Skaab Goliath worries me, however. Still, Blue looks to be a strong contender.

Black

Bunch of poop. Moving on . . . 

Red

Two Into the Maw of Hell and Devil's Play make Red very hard to pass up here.

Green

Could not miss harder.

So, basically, we need to decide between White, Blue, and Red. All three have pros and cons, but in the end, I went with R/W, though Blue was very tempting. I wanted to be aggressive in the early game in order to push enough damage through to make Rage Thrower and Devil's Play game-ending cards. I felt that White was a little better than Blue, but I could be wrong. On to the matches!

Match 1, Game 1

My opponent puts me on the play, and I’m able to lead with a turn-one Champion of the Parish. My hopes of living the dream with it are quickly dashed when he immediately Geistflames it. We both then play out some durdles. He passes on his turn four in order to transform his Hanweir Watchkeep, but I have a plan for it. I play my fifth land and summon a Scourge of Geier Reach, which is conveniently a 5/5. His Bane of Hanweir would be forced to trade with it, thus transforming my Thraben Sentry and putting me in a pretty good position. Unfortunately, my opponent hasn’t left 4 mana up just to transform his Werewolf; it turns that out he also has a Dissipate. I take 10 from the Batman villain before I draw a Rebuke to deal with it. I don’t have much to attack with, since my Thraben Militia is locked down by a Claustrophobia, and my only other creature is a Tormented Pariah. I make a blunder here by forgetting about his Geistflame, and I play a Voiceless Spirit instead of just passing the turn. He kills my flyer and prevents my Pariah from transforming for another turn, so I have no other choice than to continue to attack for 3. He has a Brimstone Volley to kill my impending Craw Wurm in response to the trigger, and I play yet another 3/1—this time a Kessig Wolf. He plays one of his own, but without enough mana to activate it. Oddly enough, he chump-blocks with his Wolf. His follow-up is Pitchburn Devils, and I am completely fine to trade with it. Any time I can get a one-for-one for my opponent’s Pitchburn Devils, I’ll take it. I have a Geistcatcher's Rig in-hand, but I want to wait before playing it. The only thing pressuring me is a Stitcher's Apprentice, and I expect a Blue deck to have a bunch of flyers, so I don’t want to waste it. Instigator Gang comes down, so I’m forced to act. He follows with a Manor Gargoyle, and the game is quickly slipping away. My only hope is to draw Rage Thrower and Devil's Play to dome him for enough damage. Sure enough, I draw Rage Thrower to keep things interesting, and I attack with everything the turn before I’m dead. Had the top card been a Devil's Play, I would have had 1 more than exact damage . . . but it was not meant to be.

Match 1, Game 2

My deck has a lot of X/1’s, so in an effort to reduce the effectiveness of his Geistflame, I board out a couple in favor of an Urgent Exorcism and a Silverchase Fox.

I mulligan to six cards and keep two Mountain, Plains, Village Ironsmith, Abbey Griffin, and Dearly Departed. I put him on the play, and by my turn two, we have dueling Ironsmiths. I don’t want to trade until I can play the Thraben Sentry I draw, so we just stare at each other. I don’t draw a fourth land to follow through with this plan, and taking advantage of my unwillingness to trade, my opponent attacks for 3 before causing the sun to rise with a Think Twice. I still don’t have a land, and I play a Silverchase Fox to get some sort of beatdown going. Pitchburn Devils quickly put a stop to that, and I go back to hoping to draw a land. The Thraben Sentry plan was is longer looking very appealing, so I instead play an Abbey Griffin when I do finally draw a fourth land. Any hope I have of climbing back into the game is broken by Charmbreaker Devils, which returns Brimstone Volley each turn until I die.

Not a very good start, but we can still salvage something out of this deck. My opponent was playing pretty well, and had a better deck, so I guess I can’t complain.

Match 2, Game 1

My opponent is on some sort of three-color Shimmering Grotto monstrosity. He starts out with an Elder Cathar and a Screeching Bat, while I have a Crossway Vampire and a Thraben Sentry. I have Devil's Play in hand, so I’m totally fine with racing. Abattoir Ghoul threatens to stop me in my tracks, so I Geistflame it away. A couple turns later, I Hadouken him to death.

Match 2, Game 2

I’m on the draw and keep a semi-loose hand of Plains, Mountain, two Village Ironsmiths, Rebuke, Voiceless Spirit, and Tormented Pariah. It’s very aggressive, but if I don’t draw land, I could be in trouble. He has a Screeching Bat to stop my Ironsmith from transforming, but I draw a Plains right on time to play a Voiceless Spirit on my next turn. He follows up with an Abbey Griffin, so I’m forced to go on the defensive. I miss my fourth land-drop and elect to both trigger my Werewolf and leave up mana for Rebuke. He doesn’t do anything on his turn anyway, so I guess I could have played another man there. I attack for 3, and I even have Geistflame in case he tries to get clever and double-block, but I suspect he doesn’t want to trade his Screeching Bat. I play another Ironsmith and pass the turn. He transforms his Bat and gets in for 5, but that only means that I’m going to attack with my entire team on my turn. I draw a second Rebuke, so when he attacks with only his Abbey Griffin, I cast one in order to entice him to attack with his 5/5 next turn. He plays an Ulvenwald Mystics post-combat, so I have to rethink things a bit. I decide to only attack with my flyer, leaving myself with 6 points of First Strike damage on defense. He plays an Unburial Rites to retrieve his Abbey Griffin, and an Avacynian Priest to transform both of my Werewolves. I just want to point out that I still haven’t drawn my fourth land. No big deal. I eventually start drawing lands and started playing my hand, though I take a bunch of damage along the way. He top-decks an Angel of Flight Alabaster, but mine’s better: Rage Thrower. I slam it down and turn all my guys sideways. He’s on low enough life that he’s dead no matter how he blocks.

Match 3, Game 1

My opponent chooses to play and leads with a turn-two Ashmouth Hound. This time, I’m the one who gets to snap-Geistflame something. I draw a Voiceless Spirit right on time, and I follow up with a Tormented Pariah. I have a Thraben Sentry I could have played instead, but the board isn’t really great for it. He has a Harvest Pyre on his turn to kill my flyer, but I think that playing the Pariah is a better line. In any case, I play the Sentry on my turn and trade my Pariah for his Orchard Spirit, leaving him with nothing and me with a 5/4. His R/G deck then plays a Swamp and Tribute to Hunger. Kind of awkward. I miss my fifth land-drop, and my hand is two 6-mana creatures, an Into the Maw of Hell, and a Rebuke, so I’m not doing much for a little while. His follow-up is a Grizzled Outcasts, which I happily kill with Rebuke. Once I draw lands, I start playing my 6-drops, but he has a Blasphemous Act to wipe the board. My hand is now double Into the Maw of Hell, so I have plenty of time to draw into something good. A Charmbreaker Devils nearly gives me flashbacks to Round 1, and I don’t hesitate to kill it and his lone Swamp. I finally draw a creature—a Village Ironsmith—which comes down as a 2/2, since Dearly Departed is in my graveyard. He has a Somberwald Spider to prevent me for attacking for a turn, and I decide to just pass the turn rather than wasting a removal spell on it. Galvanic Juggernaut is threatening enough for me to drag it to Hell, thus enabling some beatdown from Ironfang. He draws Swamp to kill it with a Dead Weight and starts attacking me with his Spider. I’m still at 18 life, so I’m not worried. He plays a Skirsdag High Priest on the following turn, and I attack with a Kessig Wolf. I get to eat his Spider with a flashed-back Geistflame, effectively neutering his Priest. I play my second Thraben Sentry, but it meets a fiery demise at the wrong end of a Brimstone Volley. My Wolf eats away at his life total, but he soon has a Moldgraf Monstrosity to give me pause. P.S. Devil's Play you.

Yay, I’m guaranteed prize! I really would like to win the last round, since the difference between 6 and 9 points is pretty significant. Even if I lose, I get to draft, I guess.

The tournament ended before I could watch the remaining replays, so I don’t have a recap of the last round. I ended up losing to a very good deck that face-rolled me with Bloodline Keeper. I didn’t draw enough lands, and in retrospect, I really should have played eighteen. My deck was full of 6-drops, and Devil's Play is, of course, best when you have a ton of lands. It’s pretty bad for aggressive decks when they get flooded, but in this case, all my best cards cost 6 mana. I’ll take this as a learning experience for the next time I played Sealed.

Hope you guys enjoyed my Magic Online Sealed report. Until next time, may you always top-deck a lethal Fireball the turn before you die.

Nassim Ketita