Shards of Alara Sealed Deck by A. Newby

Personally, I don’t like the Shard of Alara Sealed Deck format. I prefer drafting the set. But, because most of us played in at least one prerelease or release event, and a few of us are planning on attending a PTQ for Kyoto, the Sealed format at least deserves a look. I’m going to take a look at a sealed pool and try to help you figure out how to properly tackle this format. I have read and seen quite a few people trying to “teach” the format to others, yet I feel like most of them don’t really teach you anything, but instead just tell you what deck they built with the random cards they were given.

A couple quick points I’d like to address before we look at a sample sealed pool. First of all, this format is VERY slow. What that means is almost every game you will be able to get up to 7 or 8 mana before the game starts to side with a player for control. You can almost always play the 5 or higher mana costing cards in your deck. This is a result of a few things. One reason is that there aren’t a lot of really strong or impacting inexpensive creatures. Aside from Wild Nacatl and a few other one and two drops, most of the impacting creatures in the format are 3, 4, 5 and higher mana cost. The other reason is because Shards is a multicolour set and the mana fixing is, for the most part, very slow. Unlike Ravnica’s Signets and bounce lands, Shards mana fixing consists of unbelievably slow and inefficient Panoramas and more costly and slow Obelisks. Unfortunately, the far superior triple lands (Arcane Sanctum cycle) are uncommon and much tougher to get in Sealed Deck. Let’s take a look at a sealed pool. I am going to organize the cards by colour and then one pile of its own for Multicolour. Thank heavens it’s much easier to sort cards in this format compared to Shadowmoor/Eventide limited.

White:
Dispeller’s Capsule
Sighted-Caste Sorcerer
Resounding Silence
Resounding Silence
Knight of the Skyward Eye
Angelic Benediction
Battlegrace Angel

Blue:
Jhessian Lookout
Resounding Wave
Vectis Silencers
Vectis Silencers
Cathartic Adept
Dawnray Archer
Courier’s Capsule
Sphinx’s Herald
Spell Snip

Black:
Deathgreeter
Undead Leotau
Undead Leotau
Viscera Dragger
Viscera Dragger
Glaze Fiend
Glaze Fiend
Skeletal Kathari
Puppet Conjurer
Banewasp Affliciton
Corpse Connoisseur

Red:
Vithian Stinger
Resounding Thunder
Resounding Thunder
Jund Battlemage
Bloodpyre Elemental

Green:
Naturalize
Elvish Visionary
Savage Hunger
Court Archers
Cavern Thoctar
Naya Battlemage
Naya Battlemage
Naya Battlemage
Drumhunter
Keeper of Progentitus
Behemoth’s Herald
Gift of the Gargantuan
Jungle Weaver

Multicolour:
Deft Duelist
Hindering Light
Windwright Mage
Brilliant Ultimatum
Punish Ignorance
Sigil Blessing
Tidehollow Strix
Agony Warp
Agony Warp
Waveskimmer Aven
Bant Charm
Goblin Deathraiders
Blightning
Tidehollow Sculler
Rip-Clan Crasher
Rip-Clan Crasher
Sangrite Surge
Sarkhan Vol

Artifacts and Land:
Esper Panorama
Jund Panorama
Grixis Panorama
Obelisk of Bant
Relic of Progenitus
Crumbling Necropolis

Alright, so the card that immediately stands out, to me, is Sarkhan Vol. As much as I dislike him. He is clearly going to win games. Because it’s a slow format, if by turn 4 you can make all your creatures stronger, and then by turn 6 you can have five 4/4 Flying Dragons, you WILL win the game. Anyway, let’s take a look at each colour to see if we’ve got enough playable cards.

White:
Dispeller’s Capsule – Very playable, but I’d keep in in the sideboard incase we run into a particularly annoying Esper-based deck. There aren’t too many other artifacts and enchantments to worry about.

Angelsong – For me, this card is always on the verge of playable simply because it doesn’t do a lot to win games, it simply stalls.

Sighted-Caste Sorcerer – Very good card for a white deck that relies of speed and curve.

Resounding Silence – In my opinion, the best of the resounding cycle. Especially insane if you can cycle it.

Knight of the Skyward Eye – A very strong 2/2 for 2. The ability to pump it up so it works with all of your “control a creature of 5 power or greater” abilities is very strong.

Angelic Benediction – A bit underrated, but I don’t think it will make the cut, since I’m not seeing a lot of exalted in this pool. By “a lot” I mean, at least 4 or 5 creatures which can allow us to play a deck based on exalted and curving out against all the other slow decks.

Battlegrace Angel – An obvious bomb even in decks that aren’t relying on exalted.

Blue:
Jhessian Lookout – This card is alright at best. I think it personally trades to easily and because it has no ability, it’s not really relevant considering the amount of large creatures that can block it all day.

Resounding Wave – Incredibly solid bounce spell. Plain and Simple.

Vectis Silencers – I’m not a fan of these guys. Even though it has deathtouch, I think it’s a little too weak to do anything more than trade with another creature. It’s value increases a lot when you are running a heavy artifact deck.

Cathartic Adept – Just plain weak.

Dawnray Archer – Not too bad, but It’s a little bit of a mana comitment. Again, works well with exalted decks, which our is not, it looks like.

Courier’s Capsule – Excelent draw spell. I’ve played a deck where I splashed one Island and some mana fixing so I could play two of these. It was well worth it.

Sphinx’s Herald – Again, terrible.

Spell Snip – Unless I’m playing a pretty heavy control deck using Cancel and other control cards, It won’t have much of an impact, especially because of the slow format, later in the game, your opponent will almost always have enough mana to pay. I’m starting to think Retrace would be a more powerful mechanic in this set then it was in Eventide.

Black:
Deathgreeter – I’d say this guy is just too weak to many any sort of significant impact on the game.

Undead Leotau – This creature isn’t too bad, and it’s also easily splashable. The fact that has an inexpensive unearth cost is a bonus.

Viscera Dragger - One of best non-rare unearth creatures, in my opinion. He’s cost efficient normally, and his unearth can always catch your opponent off guard when calculating the potential damage on the board.

Glaze Fiend – Unless you are going for a very strong, and I mean like every other spell in the deck is an artifact, artifact theme, this Vampire Bat is not really worth a creature slot in your deck.

Skeletal Kathari – Three-power flyers are always nice, although I don’t think he’s particularly worth 5 mana. There is probably a better card you can play besides him, usually.

Puppet Conjurer – A Pretty useless card.

Banewasp Affliciton – This card really doesn’t do anything for you, when you think about it. Also, most creatures don’t have a toughness over 3. It’s a very slow and annoying burn spell at its absolute best.

Corpse Connoisseur – Looking at the two Viscera Draggers, this card wouldn’t seem too bad, but It’s a little bit too specific.

Red:
Vithian Stinger – I’d say this card is strictly better then Prodigal Pyromancer and the Pyromancer was very playable.

Resounding Thunder – In my opinion, it’s the second best Resounding card. The fact that we have two, makes it especially devastating.

Jund Battlemage – I think this is one of the strongest Battlemages in the set. If it isn’t dealt with early enough, your board position can get really out of control.

Bloodpyre Elemental – I’d say this is a solid removal spell instead of a creature. The 4 damage is crutial because nearly every creature in the set has less than 4 toughness. It doesn’t deal with some huge bombs like Dragons, but that’s why Dragons are bombs.

Green:
Naturalize – Solid removal spell. I’d say it’s got about as much playability as the white capsule, so it’s a great sideboard card.

Elvish Visionary – A lot of people like this card, and I think it’s good in a deck that relies on bigger creatures. You want to draw more land and big creatures and a 1/1 blocker is nice while you wait for your win conditions. If you deck is lacking curve, this is a good card. If you deck, however, relies on Exalted or another way to curve out quickly, Visionary is a poor choice for your 2-drop slot.

Savage Hunger – This is a fairly weak card and promotes 2-for-1s. What that means is if you enchant a creature and your opponent removes that creature with resounding thunder, lets say, you lost two cards while your opponent only lost one card. It puts you at card disadvantage. In this case, the bonus of +1/+0 and trample is definitely not worth losing two cards for. On the whole, Aura’s tend to be too weak to play, but there are always exceptions that can have a massive impact on the game in your favour (Verdant Embrace, Shield of the Oversoul, etc.)

Court Archers – This card is very strong for a three-drop, especially in an exalted deck, but also works well in any deck with green. Reach helps deal with annoying flyers that have a tendancy to eat up 6-8 of your life total before they are dealt with.

Cavern Thoctar – A solid creature in a big creature deck.

Naya Battlemage – One of the best Battlemages because of the tap ability. Tapping is a great answer to a lot of strong creatures because it can keep even some of the most powerful bombs in check such as Flameblast Dragon. Also, since it’s not spot removal, you can always tap the best creature on the opponent’s side of the board, even if they keep playing better creatures. PLUS the fact that this pool has three Naya Battlemages makes it almost impossible not to see at least one in every game.

Drumhunter – Great card if you have a lot of hgh power creatures. Drawing cards is always a powerful ability because it allows you to draw more answers, more solid creatures and land.

Keeper of Progentitus – I find this card a little too expensive to be really good at accelerating. Also, it doesn’t fix your mana, it just adds more of the same. In a multicolour format, it’s almost always better to have a card that can help you get the colours you need.

Behemoth’s Herald – Completely useless card.

Gift of the Gargantuan – Personally, I see this as a very underrated card. Helps you get creatures and the land to play them. Unless you are playing a very quick and aggressive deck, this card is a great card for almost any green deck.

Jungle Weaver – Not a bad creature at all. I can see myself cycling this guy more often than playing, although because of the slow format, you can play him as well.

Multicolour:
Deft Duelist – Very solid and hard to deal with 2-drop, no quesiton.

Hindering Light – From my experience, this counterspell is a little too restrictive for Sealed deck. I’d much rather be countering my opponent’s threats.

Windwright Mage – This card is phenomenal, but only realy in a heavy artifact deck. It’s actually too weak and expensive otherwise.

Brilliant Ultimatum – Neat, but not really worth all that coloured mana.

Punish Ignorance – Personally, I like this card. It’s not worth splashing, though. A little heavy on the blue mana, so I’d stick to Esper with this one. But it’s very worth it to counter a powerful threat and create a 6-life gap between you and your opponent.

Sigil Blessing – Simply put, this is the best combat trick printed in a long time. It can easily win games as well as save all of your creatures from trading.

Tidehollow Strix – This is one of the highly undervalued creatures of the set. It’s a two power flyer for two mana, first of all, which is efficient, especially for blue and black. On top of that, it can trade with nearly every creature since it has deathtouch.

Agony Warp – It’s much more powerful then it looks on the surface. Imagine this situation. You’ve got an Elvish Visionary on the board and your opponent has Goblin Deathraiders and Mosstodon. He swings with both, since its advantageous for him to attack, and you block the Goblin Deathraiders with your Elf. Before damage goes on the stack, you play Agony Warp, giving the Mosstodon -0/-3 and the Deathraiders -3/-0. All of a sudden you killed both his creatures and kept your creature for future blocking!

Waveskimmer Aven – Phenomenal card and definitely worth splashing for. Especially good in Exalted decks, but it’s not required.

Bant Charm – All of the charms are very powerful. The gem of this charm in limited is the ability to ship a creature to the bottom of it’s owner’s library, where they will never see it again. At least until the next game…

Goblin Deathraiders – Very good in a very aggressive deck, since you can potentially get in about 6 damage out of it, but it’s pretty bad in the late game.

Blightning – Powerful discard spell, especially on turn 3. Again, better in an aggressive deck, but it’s still unbeievably powerful, especially in multiples.

Tidehollow Sculler – I’ve heard that this card is really good, but from my experience, It doesn’t seem too amazing. I think it’s playable in a good Esper deck, at least.

Rip-Clan Crasher – Pretty much only good in an aggressive deck, since, like Deathraiders, you can deal around 6 damage on average with it. Having two of these in a deck increases the consistency.

Sangrite Surge – This card really should have been an instant. Or at least it should have given the creature trample. It’s so easy to chump block this creature and then you realized you wasted 6 mana for nothing.

Sarkhan Vol – No doubt, best card in the entire pool. Five 4/4 Dragons are unbelievably difficult to deal with.

Artifacts and Land:
Esper Panorama
Jund Panorama
Grixis Panorama – Panorama’s are quite slow, although we’re probably going to need them if we play three or more colours.

Obelisk of Bant – If we’re playing an aggressive deck, I’d prefer to stay away from obelisks, but since it’s only one, we should be fine with it if we’re in those colours.

Relic of Progenitus – This card is for the most part pretty useless. Its filler if we completely don’t have enough playables.

Crumbling Necropolis – These are the best mana fixers in the set.

Let’s take a look at our playables now.

White:
Resounding Silence
Resounding Silence
Knight of the Skyward Eye
Battlegrace Angel

Blue:
Resounding Wave
Courier’s Capsule

Black:
Undead Leotau
Undead Leotau
Viscera Dragger
Viscera Dragger

Red:
Vithian Stinger
Resounding Thunder
Resounding Thunder
Jund Battlemage
Bloodpyre Elemental

Green:
Court Archers
Cavern Thoctar
Naya Battlemage
Naya Battlemage
Naya Battlemage
Drumhunter
Gift of the Gargantuan
Jungle Weaver

Multicolour:
Deft Duelist
Hindering Light
Sigil Blessing
Tidehollow Strix
Agony Warp
Agony Warp
Waveskimmer Aven
Bant Charm
Goblin Deathraiders
Blightning
Rip-Clan Crasher
Rip-Clan Crasher
Sarkhan Vol

Artifacts and Land:
Esper Panorama
Jund Panorama
Grixis Panorama
Obelisk of Bant
Relic of Progenitus
Crumbling Necropolis

What I’ve noticed is there are a few archetypes for this format besides just the specific shards. We’ve got the Exalted deck which plays at least 6 or 7 creatures with exalted and tries to win as fast as possible. We’ve also got the artifact deck, which is mainly Esper but almost extremely focused on artifact synergies. Theres also the 5-power or greater deck which plays mainly creatures with 5 or more power, but also plays a lot of creatures that will work off of that. You can evne play a heavy control deck using Cancel, Spell Snip, Hindering Light, Punish Ignorance, Courier’s Capsule and some powerful removal spells like Resounding Wave/Silence and Agony Warp while using a few bombs and solid creatures as win conditions.

Anyway, our pool is looking like we should be running a Naya theme and maybe splashing for some blue. Let’s see what kind of deck we can build if we go with that theme.

Creatures:
Knight of the Skyward Eye
Battlegrace Angel
Vithian Stinger
Jund Battlemage
Bloodpyre Elemental
Court Archers
Cavern Thoctar
Naya Battlemage
Naya Battlemage
Naya Battlemage
Rip-Clan Crasher
Rip-Clan Crasher
Waveskimmer Aven

Spells:
Resounding Silence
Resounding Silence
Courier’s Capsule
Resounding Thunder
Resounding Thunder
Gift of the Gargantuan
Sigil Blessing
Bant Charm
Sarkhan Vol
Obelisk of Bant

Lands:
Esper Panorama
Jund Panorama
Grixis Panorama
Crumbling Necropolis
Forest (5)
Mountain (4)
Plains (3)
Island (1)

And there you have it. A little practice sealed deck for you. I decided to play all the Panoramas simply because they slightly fix my colours and also filter out some lands in my deck. Going into the late game, I’d much rather draw spells than land every turn. There even the tiniest splash of black in there (Crumbling Necropolis) incase I want to cycle my Resounding Thunders.