Seeking Sealed Success

Hello internet, my name is Blue and today I want to take a look at sealed; more specifically, Prerelease sealed. With Theros: Beyond Death around the corner, I thought now would be a good time to discuss my tips on how to be a better sealed player. A quick note though that these tips are specifically for Prerelease-style events, not Draft. I’ll go over Draft another day. Now let’s get started!

Removal

Knowing the set you’re playing is imperative as it tells you which colors have access to what, but there’s a lot more to choosing your color than just knowing the set. In my experience with sealed, you want to focus on removal. Bombs are the easiest way to win a game in a limited environment, but if your deck is full of removal, you can keep your opponent’s threats off the battlefield and make it difficult for them to pull ahead. I will always open my packs looking for removal first and pick my colors based on where all my kill spells are at. This method of picking colors has almost never failed me over my four years of jamming sealed events.

Card Advantage

After I know what colors I’m playing, I dig deep in those colors for card advantage, whether it’s literal with card draw or virtual with token production or discard spells. Sealed is a battle of resources so you need to keep ahead by either pushing your opponent behind with discard or pushing yourself forward with tokens, tutors, or card draw. Sometimes I look for life gain, but that’s only in sets that are hyper-aggressive, like Hour of Devastation limited was. I’d also highly recommend looking for cards that do multiple things, like adventures in Throne of Eldraine or split cards during Ravnica block. When a card does double-duty, it’s virtual card advantage since you can use the card multiple times or you have options on what you can do with it. In Theros, keep an eye out for cards with the new Escape mechanic as that’s a prime example of virtual card advantage.

Bombs

Once you have your card advantage sorted, that’s when you want to look for your bombs. If you don’t have any in your colors, DON’T WORRY! As long as you have plenty of removal and resources, you don’t need a bomb because you can pull ahead with removal, card draw, and other resources. If you open something absolutely absurd in another color, it’s okay to try and splash for it but be careful of how thin you stretch your colors. If you can’t make the mana work, then don’t try to force it. You’ll win more games without it than you would with it if your mana is bad. I’ve had my fair share of sealed events where I didn’t play that busted gold card because I couldn’t get it to fit in the mana and I still won. It’s as if you didn’t even open it.

Other Resources

Now that everything else is done, it’s time to look at the rest of your card pool and fill out your curve. Start with small creatures, even if they’re just vanilla creatures, so you have something to play in the early game. Look at artifacts that do something when they enter or enchantments that can keep you alive. Anything you think your deck might need should be considered. At the top of your curve, look for evasive creatures like flyers or hard-to-answer cards like ones with Hexproof, even if they aren’t the best. If your opponent can’t block it or kill it, then it just sits out chipping in for damage or will be the only thing standing when your opponent draws their removal. Remember, resource denial is a key factor in limited, so if your opponent can’t deny you those resources, it’s difficult for them to stay in the game.

My Final Tips

Lastly, and most importantly, have fun! I know it’s cliche, but Limited is more about the fun and experience you have when you don’t play at a competitive level. If there’s no money on the line, do whatever makes you comfortable and try to learn a thing or two along the way. Everything takes practice, so if you aren’t all that good at limited yet, then just focus on the fun.

Wrap-up

I’ve been playing at Prereleases for years and I have a pretty good track record of hitting at least Top 8, but that doesn’t mean I can’t learn something myself. If you think I missed something that I should know about or you just wanna share your own thoughts or opinions, feel free to put it in the comments down below. Before we go, a quick reminder to follow the site on Twitter @MTGOracle and myself @TwoBlueUntapped to keep up with everything Magic. This is Blue, signing out!