Sometimes, planets align and everything just flows in perfect sequence. That happened to me in recent weeks.

It started with the great reaction to my last article. I love to hear comments in any way, shape, or form. I was amazed by how many people didn’t know about the four-pack Sealed option for Magic Online. If you missed that article or didn’t know about it before now, the four-pack Sealed it is a mini tournament that fires off every time eight players enter. The cost is only product (four packs), and you build a thirty-card deck from your packs. The value potential might be the highest among choices for online pack opening.

The building process is slightly different than the normal six-pack environment we’re all used to. I almost instinctually changed my thought process when building for four-pack Sealed, but I was looking for some way to communicate that to my classroom. I hope you all are familiar with the BREAD and BRUSH acronyms. I was hoping to adjust these, but I was lacking a good, catchy term. The real world showed me a solution. My fellow coaches and I were in the hallway talking about the upcoming basketball season when our boys coach started salivating over a new offensive scheme he was thinking about running. It was called “read and react offense.” Those were the words I needed. The way to build for four-pack Sealed is to READ and REACT.

I explain the acronyms later, but first I need a good example from which to illustrate. The problem here was that M12 was never firing off within my real-life time constraints. The new kid on the block, Innistrad, is dominating everyone’s focus. While Innistrad fires about every twenty minutes, it may take hours for enough M12 players to be there. I haven’t invested in any Innistrad packs yet because I first want to open the ten M12 packs I got. There have been a couple of times when I’ve spent my gaming time in the Casual Room while waiting for M12 to fire and had to end up withdrawing. But last night, I checked, and there were seven people already queued, and within moments, we were building. I truly appreciate the other seven players who waited forever for tourney to begin. They showed more patience than I ever did.

Now instead of ten packs, I have eleven to use. It was perfect, and it also illustrated my new priorities when building for four-pack Sealed.

Four-Pack Principles

Before going into what the READ and REACT system is, we need to understand a couple of principles.

The first is card quality. In six-pack, your card pool is built from ninety cards, of which most players will use about twenty-three or twenty-four, on average. In four-pack, you see sixty cards, and I use about seventeen or eighteen in my decks. I haven’t seen anyone say, “You should always run this number of lands in a thirty-card deck,” so what people use probably varies wildly. Regardless, you need to use about 5% more of the cards you open, and you have a decreased probability of seeing a bomb rare.

In exchange for the lack of depth among your choices, you still get to start the game with seven cards in your hand. Seeing seven out of thirty cards highly increases the odds of drawing into your power cards, even though you’re less likely to start out with one such card in your deck. Also, everyone is in the same boat. This means that the actual games are typically much longer in turn length, which is something that also improves the odds. Seeing at least half of your deck during a single game is the norm—not the exception.

The last principle we need to look at is in regards to the mana options. With six-pack, going three colors really requires some mana-fixing. You need to either hit cards like Solemn Simulacrum or Rampant Growth or secure a double-mana-generator like Dragonskull Summit. In four-pack, we see a significantly higher proportion of our cards, so splashing for a third color isn’t nearly as much of a stretch as you may think it is. If you happen to be lucky enough to hit any of the aforementioned cards, you’ll come out better. I actually played a game in which I only used three Green cards, and two of them were Rampant Growths.

READ and REACT

The first notable thing about the READ and REACT system is the lack of the letter B. B, in the BREAD and BRUSH systems, stood for Bombs. I think that in four-pack, the B needs to be deemphasized. But the only R word that came to me was Rebel; however, the E and L at the end are dysfunctional. So, I took the liberty of changing Bombs to Awesomes.

So, both words now begin with the letter R. It still has the same classic meaning: Removal. I feel that in four-pack, removal spells, such as Doom Blade and Oblivion Ring, have an even greater importance because of their ability to trump the ever-harder-to-find awesomes. So, I’ve moved the R to a spot of more importance. It’s also important to play your removal correctly. Being able to remove an opponent’s permanent doesn’t mean you should. My advice would be to hold your removal until either you have two in hand or your opponent plays an awesome. Sure, that Chasm Drake may be annoying you, but wouldn’t you rather Doom Blade his Frost Titan next turn?

The E is why that Drake was so bothersome. The E is for Evasion. With the severe lack of awesome cards, we can often do more damage with multiple simple evasive spells. We all know the Flying, unblockable, and Trample types of evasion, but I also include direct-damage spells like Lava Axe. My argument is that evasion includes all means of dealing damage that cannot be easily blocked.

The A stands for those Awesome cards that I mentioned earlier. While these cards are important, I will actually choose colors for my deck with more of an eye on removal than awesomes. Please note that not all rares are awesome. The most common build mistake I’ve seen from my real life students is that they build to make rares work, when ultimately, rares are just icing. The real cake comes from the commons.

Now the decision happens. Are you a READ deck or a REACT deck? Basically, you need to decide how you are winning the game. Do the cards you possess make you think you’ll play strong in the red zone, or do they make you feel that a control-and-tempo game will be more your style? The first deck type is a READ deck. The final D stands for Damage. Abilities like Bloodthirst and cards that have a high damage-to-mana-cost ratio are the gems of D. If colors permit, my favorite D card in M12 is probably Garruk's Companion, although it also falls in the E category with its Trample ability.

In general, my play style puts me in the REACT camp more often. In a REACT deck, we look to control the game and find ways to win that come from sources other than big critters. Sure, on paper, we did our 20 damage with combat, but it was really the multiple Divinations and Hunter's Insights that generated the card advantage to outplay our opponent by having more plays available. Most thirty-card decks only carry about seventeen to eighteen nonland cards. If I get to play twelve cards while you only get to play nine, I am probably going to have an advantage. Of course, your 4/4 may outclass my 2/2, so in that case, the extra spell is irrelevant.

In this style of deck, the C stands for Cost. In order to take advantage of the extra cards, I need them to be inexpensive enough to allow me to play them. If I draw into an extra card with a converted mana cost of 6 and another with a converted mana cost of 7, I am unlikely to be able to play both on the same turn. Playing just one card a turn makes it take a lot longer to get ahead. So, if I’m building a REACT deck, I’ll try to include cards that either generate a two-for-one or allow me to play two in a turn.

The T stands for Triumph, and it includes all means to a win. I know that most victories are found through combat, but occasionally, you land a sweet combo or another means to a final victory. Since most combos and alternate wins require some form of card advantage, they fit perfectly with the REACT building style. It is a rare situation that allows for a win from non-traditional means, but if you think about it, the T in REACT is almost silent. How would you pronounce REAC?

The Example

Here is the list I drew when I was fortunate enough to make it into an M12 four-pack Sealed.

[cardlist]

[Creatures]

1 Azure Mage

1 Belltower Sphinx

1 Brindle Boar

1 Chasm Drake

1 Child of Night

1 Fiery Hellhound

1 Garruk's Companion

1 Goblin Arsonist

1 Goblin Bangchuckers

1 Goblin Piker

1 Griffin Sentinel

1 Lightning Elemental

1 Llanowar Elves

1 Peregrine Griffin

1 Pride Guardian

1 Primeval Titan

1 Runeclaw Bear

1 Stonehorn Dignitary

1 Stormfront Pegasus

1 Vengeful Pharaoh

1 Zombie Goliath

2 Gideon's Lawkeeper

2 Lurking Crocodile

2 Merfolk Mesmerist

[/Creatures]

[Planeswalkers]

1 Chandra, the Firebrand

[/Planeswalkers]

[Spells]

1 Autumn's Veil

1 Fling

1 Frost Breath

1 Naturalize

1 Slaughter Cry

1 Wring Flesh

1 Act of Treason

1 Diabolic Tutor

1 Disentomb

1 Divination

1 Goblin Grenade

1 Lava Axe

1 Ponder

1 Taste of Blood

1 Ice Cage

1 Lure

1 Oblivion Ring

1 Trollhide

1 Zombie Infestation

2 Jace's Erasure

2 Pacifism

1 Crown of Empires

1 Manalith

[/Spells]

[Lands]

[/Lands]

1 Arachnus Spinner

1 Hunter’s Insight

2 Bloodrage Vampire

[/cardlist]

How would you build it? You can possibly go READ, or you can go REACT. The Titan was a foil, by the way, so I knew I made some ticket value out of these packs even though there aren’t very many chase cards in the set.

Have you figured out your build yet? I am trying to fill space so that you can avoid accidentally seeing my list.

Have you tried higher octane yet? It is a real money-saver.

Have I ever mentioned how cool Trick is? [Editor's Note: I'm sad. - Stybs] I kinda hope he inserts some pics here or something because I’m not in a mood for small talk.

[Editor’s Note: You’re welcome. - Andrew]

My Build

Believe it or not, I bypassed Green altogether. It wasn’t an easy decision. In fact, I actually jotted down a list that included Green, just in case I wanted to change my mind for Games 2 and 3. The White was an auto-include. Oblivion Ring is my favorite removal in the format, and that along with double-Pacifism and double-Lawkeeper means that White is the winner in the R Phase of building. Why couldn’t I hit a Day of Judgment? Just lucky, I guess.

But if I didn’t go with Green, what did I choose? Blue. With the double-Erasure and the Mesmerist as well as the juicy Belltower Sphinx, mill seemed to be the route to play. Ironically, the hardest match of the day was against a newer player who built a forty-card deck, not realizing that you only have to run thirty in four-pack Sealed.

The one strategy I never saw was the adding of cards during sideboarding. I actually kinda wanted someone to water down his deck in order to outlast the mill. I had planned on changing to Green in Game 3 if that happened and then winning as my beatdown and evasion sliced through the opponent’s weaker cards.

[cardlist]

[Creatures]

1 Azure Mage

1 Belltower Sphinx

1 Stonehorn Dignitary

2 Gideon's Lawkeeper

2 Merfolk Mesmerist

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

1 Frost Breath

1 Divination

1 Ponder

1 Ice Cage

1 Oblivion Ring

2 Jace's Erasure

2 Pacifism

1 Manalith

[/Spells]

[Lands]

6 Plains

8 Island

[/Lands]

[/cardlist]

To be honest, I wouldn’t be sharing this with you if it weren’t for the fact that I was very successful. When I look at my final list, it seems a little crazy. Maybe I took a risk, but it was worth it. Feel free to bash my build in the comments—I love seeing the responses, both good and bad. Once again, thank you for attending class.

Class dismissed.