What if I told you there was an EDH tournament that wasn't really about winning?

Sure, every game and every organized competition, with very few exceptions, eventually looks to crown a winner. There's a final match, and there may even be prizes for the lucky soul who comes out on top, but folks don't really look at this event in the same way that they look at your average tournament.

There's no practicing your deck ahead of time. We don't even study up on the set that will be drafted. We show up to have fun, to raise money for some great charities, and to meet and play EDH with a player base that on average isn't quite as competitively-minded as what you'll see at a Magic Fest, Pro Tour Qualifier, or other high profile Magic event.

The event I'm talking about is Commander Sealed. It's held in Rochester, New York and this year was my third time participating. You can read about my 2022 Commander Sealed experience here, and my 2023 Commander Sealed trip here.

This past weekend I was lucky enough to be able to get out to Rochester to join 255 other EDH players for this unique and uniquely fun event. It's a fundraiser for The Trevor Project and Trans Lifeline, and it attracts a lot of local players along with folks from all over the country.

Commander Sealed 2024: The Format

Commander Sealed is just that: an event where players open sealed Magic booster packs, build 100 card decks, and compete in four player pods to try to see who can come out on top. The sets have varied every year and this year we opened 14 booster packs from the following sets.

• 5 packs from among the following: Murders at Karlov Manor, Outlaws of Thunder Junction, Lost Caverns of Ixalan, Wilds of Eldraine, Dominaria Remastered, Kamigawa, Neon Dynasty, Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, March of the Machine, Strixhaven: School of Mages
• 1 pack of Modern Horizons 3
• 2 packs each from these sets: Bloomburrow, Lord of the Rings, Battle for Baldur's Gate, Ravnica Remastered

The good news is that in recent years we've seen an uptick in the number of legendary creatures so building a playable commander deck isn't impossible with this setup. It helps a lot that players get seated into "build pods" and can trade cards within their table.

What all that means is that the decks we end up with aren't particularly tuned, focused, or optimized. We do the best we can with what we open, but a lucky or unlucky set of booster packs can make a world of difference.

In past years we started at 40 life, but last year and this year that starting life total was dropped to 30, as we kept having tables go to turns. The event uses interesting effects to deal with the end of the game. In 2022 we had a Havoc Festival emblem that halved our life totals every turn once a table went to turns. Last year and this year we had a unique dungeon-like effect that would really help to get things wrapped up.

The weekend is chock full of side events and other activities, along with ample time for pick-up games. This year's main Commander Sealed event started a bit later than expected, but after a short delay, we were sorted into our build tables using SpiceRack.gg, an event organizing app that handled all the table placements for Commander Sealed.

The Build Stage

Everyone seems to do their unwrapping differently, but I tend to unwrap all of the booster packs first, then sort by color, setting legendary creatures into their own pile. I ended up with some pretty interesting cards, including a few "choose a background" legends and the following three cards that seemed like my best options.

My eyes lit up when I saw the 18 power on Yargle and Multani. In a 30-life format that could be huge, but after digging through my Green and Black cards I didn't see anything beyond a Manifold Key to take advantage of that big number.

Saruman of Many Colors was pretty intriguing, but I wasn't sure I would see enough quality instant and sorcery spells in my deck or in my opponents' decks to get real value out of him. Being in three colors would greatly improve my card choice but I hadn't remembered seeing any White, Blue or Black bombs that would have made Saruman an easy pick.

I think of Commander Sealed as a format that leans a little towards creature-heavy decks, so Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes was an interesting option. I was vaguely aware that the card had the potential to be built at a high power level, and I liked that I would get that Boo token on my upkeep if it had to die as a blocker. I also liked that the card had a card draw ability on it, along with the ability to deal direct damage to any target.

During the build process, the player across from me had been disappointed in their options and had asked about Yargle and Multani. I have a Multani, Maro-Sorcerer deck and years ago I briefly had a Yargle, Glutton of Urborg deck, so that made it an easy choice for me. I passed over that Golgari powerhouse and even gave him my Manifold Key and a few other helper cards that might make his deck better.

My actual build process was pretty simple. We had 75 minutes to get our packs opened, and our decks built and sleeved, so efficiency was going to be important. I made stacks of Red creatures, Green creatures, Red non-creatures, Green non-creatures, and artifacts. I then went through each stack, which included cards from my tablemates as we were all trying to help each other out, and I picked the best 8 cards, and the best 7 for my artifacts. I then went through what was left and picked three more stacks of 7 cards each to end up with 60 cards. I tried to make sure to include interaction and to pay attention to mana curve, but it was a real rush to get it all done and there was little time for second guessing myself.

I had brought 100 basic lands (20 of each land type) so I wouldn't need to go find the land station, and it took a few seconds to grab my mountains and my forests. As I said - time is of the essence. I included two nonbasic lands in my 60 cards, as I was not seeing much in the way of ramp spells, and I proceeded to sleeve up a 42 land Gruul Minsc & Boo deck.

The list had a handful of dragons and some cards that I thought might just win me a game or two on the day. I was able to find some ways to pump Boo beyond just using my commander's +1 ability, and I had cards that I knew could make a difference if I got them at the right time. A single Act of Treason, a Lightning Bolt, or a well-timed You Look Upon the Terrasque could turn the tables if I was one of two players left in a match.

Commander Sealed Minsc & Boo | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commander (1)
• 1 Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes

• Creatures (24)
• 1 Amethyst Dragon
• 1 Belligerent of the Ball
• 1 Bellowing Bruiser
• 1 Druid of the Emerald Grove
• 1 Earth-Cult Elemental
• 1 Experiment One
• 1 Fanatic of Rhonas
• 1 Fang Dragon
• 1 Furnace Host Charger
• 1 Gnoll Hunter
• 1 Goro-Goro, Disciple of Ryusei
• 1 Gruul Guildmage
• 1 Gut, True Soul Zealot
• 1 Neverwinter Dryad
• 1 Nightshade Dryad
• 1 Oliphaunt
• 1 Sarpadian Simulacrum
• 1 Seeker of Sunlight
• 1 Serpent-Blade Assailant
• 1 Tiamat's Fanatics
• 1 Valley Mightcaller
• 1 Voracious Varmint
• 1 Wrathful Red Dragon
• 1 Writhing Chrysalis

• Instants (12)
• 1 Band Together
• 1 Bull's Strength
• 1 Cast into the Fire
• 1 Critical Hit
• 1 Gimli's Fury
• 1 Homing Lightning
• 1 In the Presence of Ages
• 1 Lightning Bolt
• 1 Overprotect
• 1 Titanic Growth
• 1 Unexpected Windfall
• 1 You Look Upon the Tarrasque

• Sorceries (5)
• 1 Act of Treason
• 1 Elven Farsight
• 1 Fire of Orthanc
• 1 Price of Loyalty
• 1 Revive the Shire

• Enchantments (7)
• 1 Dragon Mantle
• 1 Elven Chorus
• 1 Forced Adaptation
• 1 Predatory Impetus
• 1 Reach for the Sky
• 1 Taste for Mayhem
• 1 War Squeak

• Artifacts (9)
• 1 Candy Trail
• 1 Carnelian Orb of Dragonkind
• 1 Fire Diamond
• 1 Ranger's Longbow
• 1 Stone of Erech
• 1 Two-Handed Axe
• 1 Universal Solvent
• 1 Wayfarer's Bauble
• 1 Worn Powerstone

• Lands (42)
• 20 Forest
• 20 Mountain
• 1 Bristling Backwoods
• 1 Evolving Wilds

Buy This Deck Export text

When I put this list into TappedOut.net, I was shocked to see how much of a budget build it is, but in retrospect that's really not surprising. I didn't open any high value cards in my commander's colors and much of the list is the equivalent of draft chaff.

I will definitely tune this list up after this weekend, but I don't think I'll be researching competitive Minsc & Boo lists. They are out there, but I'd rather forge my own path even if it's not the optimal build. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to find something fun that can hold its own. I may even lean towards higher power, as I haven't exactly been dominating any of my playgroups lately. I get my share of wins, but not a lot more and that's fine by me.

The Games

In my first Commander Sealed event two years ago I went 0-3 with a Rocco, Cabaretti Caterer deck. Last year I went 1-2 with a Tatyova, Benthic Druid list. I couldn't possibly give you a turn by turn recounting of my games, but I'll do my best to go over how things played out this year. I generally don't include players' names but I'll reference them by the commander they were playing. They were all awesome and great tablemates without exception.

In my first round I was in a 3-player pod, up against a Sol'kanar, the Swamp King deck and a Rahda, Heir to Keld deck. The Sol-kanar player was in a bit of a bind because he was up against two Gruul decks and wasn't about to drop an Urborg to take advantage of his commander's swampwalk. The Rahda player never really got going and I was able to get the win, though I never ended up sacrificing Boo to draw any cards. I hadn't fully appreciated how good Minsc & Boo was but that game gave me a glimpse at the card's versatility.

Our game wrapped up quickly enough that I had a little time and I decided to search for a Boo token. I had made an Infinitoken but it had gotten smudged and I wanted to celebrate my victory with something nicer. I ended up having one of the vendors, Tim from Gold Sabertooth, draw up a custom token. He did a great job and you can check out his work here.

The rest of my games were four-player pods, and the player matching system had me with other players who had won their first game.

My round two was against an Aragorn, the Uniter deck, an Annie Flash deck and a Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm deck. All four commanders, mine included, were known to be powerful with the right build, and I wasn't too optimistic that I'd be able to squeak out another win.

The highlight of my round two was being able to use Minsc and Boo to put counters on a creature and then attack and use Goro-Goro, Disciple of Ryusei to make a 5/5 Red Dragon Spirit token several turns in a row. I wasn't wildly ahead of the rest of the table, but felt good about my position. The Miirym player explained that they weren't really on a Dragons build but then got lucky with their draws and happened to hit a lot of the dragons they had in their list. The Aragorn player was managing to avoid taking much damage by the time we realized they were only two points down from their starting life total of 30, we thought maybe Aragorn was going to be too far ahead for the rest of us to catch him.

That second game turned on a very weird set of events. The Mirrym player was able to make each creature they controlled into a nonlegendary copy of Miirym. Then they played a Juvenile Mist Dragon, making a whole bunch of copies of it with their Miirym copies. All these Dragons tapped down our creatures and I think I ended up being the first to get killed. The Miirym player was at a fairly low life total and the Aragorn player was able to finish off the Annie Flash player and killed the Miirym player with direct damage from Aragorn after playing a Red instant.

The Juvenile Mist Dragons kept our creatures tapped on their next untap step, so the Miirym player, who was at less than 4 life, simply had to guess who was the least likely to kill them before their next turn. I knew I had a Lightning Bolt and You Look Upon the Tarrasque in my deck, but I didn't try to talk my way out of dying. The Aragorn player had that red spell and took the game.

At 1-1 I went to my third round against an Alania, Divergent Storm deck, a Raff, Weatherlight Stalwart deck and a Tatyova, Benthic Druid deck. The Raff player was none other than Tony from The Howling Salt Mine podcast, and I was happy to tell him how much I've been enjoying it since it first started. Tony was a great tablemate, despite being in Azorius colors and doing Azorius things during the game. I kid, of course, but I did force out a few answers early on just to make sure he wasn't bluffing interaction.

This was the one round where my table went to the time limit and had to go into the "festival", a dungeon-like system that was designed to make sure we wrapped up our game quickly.

The first thing to happen was that we all lost half of our life totals, rounded up. I had a Candy Trail in play and used it to gain 3 life after that, so I felt vaguely clever, gaining the equivalent of 6 life. This Festival happened during the turn of the player to my left, so I was in the worst possible position to actually win.

The second thing to happen was that we would have our choice of a few "rooms" in the festival. Most players chose to shuffle their hand and graveyard into their library and draw 7 cards, desperately searching for an answer that would help them come out on top. The Tatyova and Alania players both did this, but neither of them found a way to close out the game. I think one of them swung at Tony, but it wasn't enough to kill him. On Tony's turn I think he also got a fresh 7 cards, but everyone was still in the game when my turn came around.

I also decided to get a new hand, as I didn't care about my graveyard and I was hopeful that I might dig to something useful. It was a long weekend and my memory may be off on this, but I think I might have swung a Dragon at Tony and then sacrificed it to dome the Tatyova player.

In the end, the Alania player was able to close out the game in a pretty impressive flurry of bounce spells. One moment we thought we were at least somewhat safe, and in the next moment all our defenses were gone and he had closed out the game, using that +2/+0 and trample from the "Fire Breathers" festival room. It was pretty impressive, and a great reminder of how important it is to hold back interaction until you really need it.

I ended my main event with one win on the day. Not bad, but I had been hoping for more after that first round.

Odds and Ends

While my personal quest to make it to the final table of Commander Sealed 2024 wasn't successful, over 250 other participants also came up short, so I'm in some pretty good company.

I was able to play in a bunch of pickup games, winning a few and having a great time. We had a few matches where it was one sided, but things mostly balanced out in the end. After a win I would drop down to a weaker deck. My wins came from Elminster, Vadrik, and a final low-powered game in which I played my Minsc & Boo list one last time.

I always find it interesting to list out the commanders I saw in my pickup games, as it's like a tiny little window on what's going on in EDH at the time of the event. You already saw the Commander Sealed decks I faced.

In my pickup games I played against...

• Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder
• The Twelfth Doctor
• Commander Liara Portyr
• Slimefoot, the Stowaway
• Cayth, Famed Mechanist
• Bjorna, Nightfall Alchemist
• Imodane, the Pyrohammer
• Henzie "Toolbox" Torre
• Vohar, Vodalian Desecrator
• Vihaan, Goldwaker
• Esika, God of the Tree
• Amareth, the Lustrous
• Zhulodok, Void Gorger
• Kruphix, God of Horizons
• Inquisitor Greyfax
• Hazezon, Shaper of Sand
• Tazri, Beacon of Unity

The decks were at a range of power levels, but even when a game was a bit unbalanced, everyone still seemed to have a pretty good time.

I was lucky enough to have a friend along with me who came up from Long Island. I drove out from the Boston area and we play together on Tabletop Simulator. I featured his Secret Lair deck in this column a couple of years ago - you can read about it here [https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/stephenjohnson-08152022-secret-lair-tribal].

He's more experienced at sealed and draft than I, but we were able to go 3-0 in a Sunday 2-Headed Giant draft, with me on an Azorius control and flyers deck and him on a sweet Gruul stompy / Dragons deck. We drafted and worked well together and it was definitely a high point of the weekend.

Final Thoughts

Commander Sealed has been a great time every year, but the real point of the event is to raise funds for The Trevor Project and Trans Lifeline. I donated two sets of hand-painted alters this year, one inspired by The Nightmare Before Christmas and the other with a Marvel theme. I decided to make a first bid on each of them of $100.00 and the former ended up going up to at least $180. The second never went up at all, so I ended up bidding on and winning my own alter set!

That hadn't been my intention, but I wanted to make sure they went for at least $100 each and they did. With my 10 Rocket Raccoon Light Paws alters back in my possession I guess I'll be putting that list back together! It was fun to play and I enjoyed it - I just didn't play it that often. It was often a bit more powerful than the tables I usually play at.

One of the things I should note before I sign off is that one of the best parts about going to a Magic event like Commander Sealed is the people you meet. I was really happy to see people from previous years that I had shared games with, gifted alters to, and even fed with spare CLIF bars when I found out they were running on fumes. I was often running on fumes this weekend, but I was always able to find friendly people to share a table and a game with.

I should note that in my first year at Commander Sealed I was one of the listed "content creators" but last year and this year I didn't bother to register as one. I don't often feel like writing about Commander, even for a great outlet like CoolStuffInc.com, carries the same weight as having a Youtube channel like the amazing MTGNerdGirl, who was also at the event.

One of the high points for me this weekend was the chance to meet Josh, a regular reader who recognized me and took the time to say hello. We didn't end up getting in any pickup games but it's always nice to know that my work is getting read and that maybe it's helping to make the format and the greater EDH community just a little bit better.

Thanks for reading, Josh! Thanks for joining me this past weekend, Mike! Thanks for putting together Commander Sealed, Dean!

Thank you for taking the time to read today's column. I expect to be moving on to write about Duskmourn: House of Horror next week. See you then!