Beyond the Card Shop: Invasion Sealed

Toby Wachter
Separating Colors

As stated in the previous article, the first step is to cut all the chaff cards. After doing this, it should be easier to visualize the strengths and weaknesses of each color. The next step is to set out each color so you can at least see the name of every card.

At this point, one color should really stick out as the best. A variety of factors can contribute to this, such as a strong creature base or many removal spells. If you're lucky enough, a color will have an incredibly broken card, which will make your decisions easier. For instance, if you open a Rout it's a safe bet you'll be playing White. Refer back to part one to see the strengths of each color. If the cards in a color really stand out as an example of those definitions, odds are it's going to be a major part of your deck.

Now that you have a color to base your deck upon, it's time to build around it. First, analyze the cards in that color. What strengths does it have? Are there weaknesses? For example, let's say you have very solid green with plenty of big creatures. Kavu Climbers, Serpentine Kavu and Kavu Chameleons are all available, some in multiples. The weakness here is an ability to clear the way for your creatures. Perhaps if you have white you can use Benalish Trappers and Shackles, or for a more direct route black with Exotic Curse and Agonizing Demise.

By the same token, let's say you have black with a ton of removal. Sure you can blow up most of your opponent's threats, but unless you have something to attack with it doesn't do you any good. Perhaps this creature base will be in the form of red Kavu, or the aforementioned green monsters. It's a matter of using the available resources to their best capacity.

Invasion is especially unique in that the colors played aren't based entirely on finding the best two or three colors and throwing them together. A big theme of this set is color interaction, and when you choose to follow it you allow your deck to reach its full potential. This is present in three forms for Invasion limited: gold cards, shared color abilities and split cards.

Some of the gold cards in this set are incredibly strong and should help lean your decision towards a specific color. Cards like Armadillo Cloak, Plague Spores, Wings of Hope, Smoldering Tar, Pyre Zombies, Meteor Storm and of course the Dragons can win games all by themselves. Let's go back to those amazing Green creatures we wanted to build the deck around before. If you managed to open two Armadillo Cloaks, they will definitely lead you towards playing white.

Plenty of cards also utilize shared color abilities. The best examples of this are the Apprentices. These creatures are only as good as the support colors you are playing. Going back to the Green creature base, let's say I have two Thornscape Apprentices. This will also encourage me to play white, and rewards me for it. The Apprentices are only the tip of the iceberg. Other cards become better when used with aligned colors such as the Weavers and Masters, or even commons like Tower Drake and Hooded Kavu.

You don't have to be able to play both sides for a split card to be good

The split cards are a little different. While it's nice to have the option to play both abilities, often it's good enough to play for only one of them. For example, the Assault half of Assault/Battery can go into any deck with Red, as it is solid removal. Additionally, the Battery option can easily go into any deck with Green since it's a 3/3 for four mana, which is on par for this set. While the versatility of playing both colors makes a split card better, it is important to note that there's nothing wrong with only being able to play one option.
Five Colors?

If this article had been written about any other set, it would have told you to play two colors, and a third minor color if desired. However, Invasion has shattered many of the rules of color choices in Sealed Deck. Green is capable of supporting a multi-color base through cards such as Harrow, Fertile Ground, Qurion Trailblazer and Nomadic Elf. This makes four or five color decks playable if the card pool is right. More importantly, it lets you play most of your broken cards.
You need to ask yourself "Is this the best configuration I can put together?"

Let's say my green has all those multi-color support cards, allowing me to play a five color deck. I can build my creature base around green and add white for Benalish Trappers, Armadillo Cloaks and to support my Thornscape Apprentices. I'll also play blue for Exclude, Repulse and Stormscape Apprentice. This is the start of a pretty solid deck. But now let's say I have one or two really great cards in Red and Black, but the rest of the cards in that color aren't all that amazing. Thanks to my multi-color base, I can play Black to run my Spinal Embrace, and Red to play Tribal Flames.
Building the Deck

Now that we know what to look for, it's time to apply it. Go back to that solid color that stands out as the strongest. In order to visualize what's going on, separate the creatures from the rest of the cards in that color. To see how their costs add up, you should curve them out on the table. What this means is to put them in columns by casting cost so you can see if there are any holes in your creature drops. If a deck has lots of Kavu Climbers and Serpentine Kavu, but not enough creatures to play on turn two or three, it needs to be fixed.

So make your columns from left to right in ascending order. For example: Thornscape Apprentices go in the first column, Quirion Elves, Might Weaver and Nomadic Elf in the column to the right of that, Pincer Spiders, Llanowar Vanguard and Llanowar Cavalry in the column to the right of that, and so on. By doing this, you can see if your mana curve needs help. If there are too many creatures on the left, you may have problems late game dealing with your opponent's big creatures. If the curve is heavy to the right, you're going to need creatures to cast earlier.

Put the remaining cards into columns below the creatures so you can see all of them. You also may want to divide these into categories, such as grouping Aggressive Urge with Wax/Wane under combat tricks.
It's nice to have a broken card, but don't downgrade 21 cards in your deck so you can play one great card

So now you can visualize where your deck stands, and what areas it needs help with. Take the color that you believe will support your main color best, and curve it out into the same columns. If it was white, we would put Benalish Trappers in the two slot with the Quirion Elves, Sunscape Apprentices into the one slot, and so on. At this point the deck's strategy should start to take shape.

At this point you need to ask yourself "Is this the best configuration I can put together?" Sealed Deck is all about working with the resources given to make the best deck possible. With this goal in mind, look at your other colors. Did you miss something? Will one of these colors fit the deck better? Unfortunately sometimes you will be forced to pass on a good card because the colors work out that way. For example, if I open Crosis, the Purger, but my sealed deck is optimal when based around a Green/White/Blue base with lots of creatures that tap other creatures, I need to accept that the Dragon is unplayable in my deck. It's nice to have a broken card, but don't downgrade 21 cards in your deck so you can play one great card.
Deck Size

Consistency is the key

The minimum size for a sealed deck is forty cards, and that number should be the limit. Much like in constructed where a sixty card deck is the minimum, it is best to play exactly at that restriction. The reason is that by breaking your deck down to the smallest number possible, you increase the power of every card in your deck. More importantly, the odds of drawing the very best cards increases as well.

If I have a power card such as a Dragon or Ghitu Fire in my deck, which gives me a better chance to draw that gamebreaker: a forty card deck or a sixty card deck? This is the one mistake I see new players make the most frequently. Even going to forty-three cards isn't good enough. It may be painful to cut cards from a deck that has so many playable ones, but it's a necessity.
Cutting Cards

Usually, there are better options

Now that we have a deck built up and visualized before us, we may need to cut cards. The optimal number of cards in the deck is 22 to make room for 18. So if there are more than 22 cards before us, we need to make cuts. Some types of cards, namely removal shouldn't be cut unless it's a sub-optimal card such as Cursed Flesh. Instead, look to cut extras that while good aren't necessarily good enough to run in your maindeck.

Keep in mind that whatever you don't play with is your sideboard. That Cursed Flesh may not make the cut, but if my opponent has a deck filled with Apprentices, I can side it in. The same can be said of other cards such as Tranquillity. While it may not necessarily be bad, against an enchantment light deck it has potential to be a dead weight card. Creatures can be cut as well, especially by glancing over the mana curve. If you have too many creatures in your three drop column, simply cut the weakest creature there. Most importantly, try to make cuts revolving around the feel of your deck. While Limited doesn't involve the precisely focused strategy in deckbuilding of Constructed, each deck still has its own feel to it. This can be defined on a more basic level. For example, a deck with Trappers and Shackles, plus fliers like Glimmering Angel and Angel of Hope will be the base of a defensive deck. A Green/Red deck with Fires of Yavimaya, lots of beatdown creatures, enhancement like Maniacal Rage and red removal would be a more aggressive decktype. By recognizing your deck's goal and how it goes about achieving it, you can make cuts to shape that strategy better.
Mana Ratio
It is important to take into account the turn drops for your cards.

Once again, this would be much more definitive if not for Invasion. Many players will give you different equations with which to estimate your land distribution. One popular method is to count all the mana symbols for a color in all the cards (one symbol for a Thornscape Apprentice, two for a Kavu Climber, etc), round that number up if it is odd, then divide it by two. That number is a good estimate as to how many lands to play in that color.

Granted, this method does have its failings. It is important to take into account the turn drops for your cards. For instance, if I have only five white cards but three of them are Benalish Trappers, I will want to run more than three Plains since the Trapper is optimal when played turn two. Additionally, they require white to activate so I'll need even more. If white was made up of only late game cards such as Angel of Mercy, I could afford to play fewer Plains.

For a four or five color deck, it is important to strongly base your mana on Green, as it allows you to get the other splashed colors. This is a little more tricky, and dependent on how many cards you splash and how many Harrows and Quirion Trailblazers you have.
Lessons Learned

Granted, building a sealed deck is easier said than done. This is especially true with Invasion, where it's possible to play four or five colors. Because of this, your card pool becomes so much bigger and your choices grow as well. Like most things, you will get better with building a sealed deck as you gain experience. After the tournament, look over the cards you opened and reanalyze your deckbuilding decisions. Ask yourself, "Did I build this deck properly?" Your performance for the day should help answer that question and prepare you better for the next qualifier.