Welcome to part one of my two article series over sealed and specifically Time Spiral sealed. During the first part of the series, we will explore the basics of deck building and some of the best draft commons and uncommons in each color. In part two, we will look further in depth at the sealed bombs in Future Sight. As sealed is a very complex and deep subject, this article will only scratch the surface of a format that is more challenging than constructed Magic. Before we are ready to look at that much detail, let’s go over some of the basics, such as….

40- Always, and I mean always run 40 cards in a sealed deck. This is a simple issue of math. If you have one bomb in your deck and run 40 cards, you are 50 percent more likely to pull your game winning card than if you are running 60 cards. I hear players all the time say, “well I got SO many good cards.” No you do not; regardless of card quality, there is a difference in the power level of almost every card in a sealed pool. This difference will determine what will make the 40 card cut and what will not.

3- The average sealed deck will run three colors. Usually, this consists of your two main colors and your third or splash color in which you are probably running five cards at most in this color. Sometimes, two colors in your sealed pool have enough power to be run without splashing for a third color. Those sealed pools are rare, say one out of five. Usually, your splash color either contains a couple of heavy hitting finishers or a few good removal spells.

Removal- If your sealed pool will support it, run any solid removal spells you might have in the pack (i.e. Lightning Axe, Sulfurous Blast, Strangling Soot, Dark Withering, ect.) Removal spells save you from your opponents early creature rush and hopefully kill their late game bombs.

Evasion- When deciding on creatures in Limited, things that are unplayable in constructed suddenly look a lot better in Limited. Take Jedit Ojanen of Efrava for instance. In constructed, he is not tournament worthy; however, in Limited if he hits the board and stays a couple of turns, you probably win the game. Good abilities to watch for in Time spiral block are flying, shadow, land walk, and fear. These kinds of abilities are what separate a generic 2/2 from a playable game-winning 2/2.

Land- In a generic 40 card, three color deck, you generally will want to run 17 lands, give or take one. Learning the land mixture that is right in a sealed deck is an extremely complicated process. Suffice it to say, your splash color probably shouldn’t be more than four or five of your lands at most. Also, be sure that if you have a storage land in your colors (even if it only produces one of your colors) to run it. Also, Prismatic Lens is a very good card to run for color fixing and colorless mana excel. The same goes for the totems.

Defense- Another mistake I see some players making is running a large amount of defensive cards. Walls and fog effects in general aren’t playable (exceptions do exist including Wall of Roots.) The problem with defenders in Limited is the same problem they have in constructed. Defenders don’t win games; they simply help to prevent you from losing. However, they do not do this well enough to warrant running them and losing a slot to another removal spell or game winning creature.

The basic principles outlined above are relatively easy to follow, and while not set in stone, are generally accepted strategies. Now that the basics are out of the way, we shall take a look at the strengths of colors in Time Spiral Block Limited. The opinion outlined below is based solely on common and uncommon cards; rares will have be evaluated on their own strengths.

White- White in Time Spiral is the color of flanking creatures and creature pumping. Cards like Celestial Crusader, Duskrider Peragrine, Fortify, Griffin Guide, Knight of the Holy Nimbus, and Watcher Sliver are solid cards in white.

Black- The color of murder and downright sneakiness. With such bombs as Assassinate, Corpulent Corpse, Dark Withering, Phthisis, Skulking Knight, Sudden Death, Strangling Soot, and Urborg Syphon-Mage in Time Spiral, make Black a very solid color for Limited.

Green- Land appearing and monsters rearing, that’s the theme of Time Spiral Green. The power that Green has: Greenseeker, Might of Old Krosa, Might Sliver, Nantuko Shaman, Penumbra Spider, Phantom Wurm, Search for Tomorrow, Scryb Ranger, Strength in Numbers, Yavimaya Dryad and especially Tromp the Domains (arguably the best finishing spell in Limited), usually makes Green a GREAT inclusion in many sealed decks as far as creature base and mana fixing is concerned.

Blue- Time Spiral Blue has largely been a color concerned with bouncing things (like Blue always does) and efficient fliers like the Errant Ephemeron. Creatures and spells to keep a look out for in your sealed pool are: Crookclaw Transmuter, Drifter il-Dal, Errant Ephemeron, Dream Stalker, Fledgling Mawcor, Riftwing Cloudskate, Snapback, Spiketail Drakeling, Think Twice, Tolarian Sentinel, and Viscerid Deepwalker. Blue is definitely a power house in Time Spiral sealed.

Red- Ransack and mayhem are the order of the day when red comes to play. In Time Spiral, the creatures aren’t the greatest, but the burn spells are second to none. A few cards I recommend for Limited play include: Bonesplitter Sliver, Conflagrate, Empty the Warrens, Firemaw Kavu, Goblin Skycutter, Lightning Axe, Mogg War Marshall, Orcish Cannonade, Rift Bolt, Sudden Shock, and the board wiping Sulfurous Blast.

I hope you enjoyed this foray into the realm of competitive sealed deck construction and strategy. Hopefully, this information will be of use when we evaluate a few of the Limited bombs in Future Sight in the near future, and especially at the Prerelease this weekend for Future Sight.

~fatguy_poolshark~

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Articles Spotlights from 2007:
Lorwyn Theme Week Intro & Schedule of Events
Blink And Bounce: Timing is Key
Going Blind: XCB Metagaming - A Prolonged Conclusion.
The Science of Magic: Genetic Engineering, Part Two.
Shifting Lineaments: Casual Metagaming (Pt. 2).
The Dungeon Of Malefict: Pure Evil!
Land Week Introduction & Schedule.
Combofusion: Legends Timeshifted.
One Card to Rule Them All: Coastal Piracy
Irrational Love: Chimeras. The Lego's of Magic.