One of the things I like about this set is the dual lands in the land slot. Most sets don't have any common dual lands, but this one has no rare duals and only a little uncommon fixing, so the common dual lands are important (especially with a cycle of 3-colored mythic dragons in the set). There are normal basics also -- I got 3 basics, 2 duals, and a Nicol Bolas checklist card in my 6 packs. Unfortunately, I got the wrong duals for the deck I built -- but I bet these lands will be premium picks in draft.
Anyway, I had the Nicol Bolas transform planeswalker in my pool, so the first thing I checked was whether I could build a deck for him. I've had poor performances in Sealed before when I prioritized being 2-color over playing off-color bomb rares, and I did not want to fall into that trap again. I had a few artifact-synergy blue cards and a couple sacrifice synergy red cards, plus some red-blue spells cards, but I stuck to my guns and tried to play more just good individual cards than go too deep into a draft archetype. Here's what I ended up building:
I was not excited to have so many 2-toughness creatures at 3 and 4 mana, but I felt like their abilities earned their spots. Act of Treason is a card I normally would not have looked at, but Dark-Dweller Oracle and Brawl-Bash Ogre were easy ways to turn it into a removal spell. I also had two Thud in my sideboard, but that's where I drew the line on playing iffy cards for synergy. Gearsmith Guardian is a nuts common by the way -- with enough blue creatures it's just a 5/5 for 5, which even beats green 5-drops in this set. Anticipate was mostly there to make sure I had something to do on turn 2, since I only played two creatures in that slot.
My prerelease promo was a knight lord, and I had a lot of just good high-stat creatures in white and green, so I built a second deck that I could bring in if I lost game 1 and just try to smash through against decks trying to do anything too cute:
I never played this deck, but I feel like it could do some good things on the play against opponents without good removal. The auras give it a chance to make creatures that hit for 5 or 6 on turn 3 or 4, but it's very 1-dimensional and has no real sources of card advantage or evasion.
So how did Grixis Bolas do?
Round 1 vs. Jund (black-red-green).
I honestly forget what this guy had in his deck. I know he had the dragon queen, because I gave him a token for it, but he never played it. Oh, and he did have Goreclaw. First game I had Bolas out, and I had difficult decisions about when to flip him because he would become vulnerable as a planeswalker despite the great abilities. When I did get enough of a chump block buffer to flip him, he took over the game quickly. Second game my opponent ramped out a turn 4 Colossal Dreadmaw, and I had to spend 3 cards to kill it, but he flooded a bit and I put together the pieces I needed. Win, 2-0.
Round 2 vs. White-Green.
This guy is one of the regulars. He had a funny pool, with powerful white and green rares, but not a lot of support, so he was playing main deck Naturalize, and that ended up biting me a couple times. In the first game, I kept a hand with no islands and never drew one. It wasn't completely one-sided, but it didn't end well. Game 2 he got me down to 2 life with a Djinn of Wishes and a few small creatures. He came at me aggressively and I had just the right trades to get him down to only a Bristling Boar against my Djinn. Twice Djinn produced the correct blockers, once to chump and then to defeat the Boar, and then he wasn't able to come up with an answer to the Djinn in time. Game 3 I was off to a good tempo start, bouncing his Hungering Hydra with the Exclusion Mage and then Dwindling it the next turn. But he again had Naturalize, and suddenly he had Resplendent Angel and a big hydra that I couldn't do anything about. Loss, 1-2.
Round 3 vs. Grixis.
This was the Nicol Bolas mirror match against a guy who I play against all the time. He opened Nicol Bolas as his promo at my table, so we both knew what we were facing. And it led to one of the most spectacularly unlikely events in Sealed. We both had Bolas in play, and I drew Act of Treason, stole his Bolas, and it died to the Legend Rule. So sweet. Later in the game, he stole my Bolas with Switcheroo, and he even flipped it, but I had enough action to eventually win. I actually made a bad misplay with Gearsmith Guardian, which would have been big enough to kill him if I had played a blue creature before combat, and he stuck it out a few more turns before I was able to close it. Second game I had a couple minor misplays also, but I got good value out of my cards and finished the game with my life at 3. Win, 2-0.
Round 4 vs. Green-Black with a blue splash.
We were both 2-1 so we figured out our prize split before the game and played for the odd 1 pack of Dominaria. His deck had some big bruisers like Demon of Catastrophes, but I won both games on the power of Sleep. That card is pretty amazing in Sealed when you get crowded boards. Dark-Dweller Oracle was good too, allowing me to all-out attack and get value from the creatures that were going to die. Win, 2-0.
So aside from Round 2, I did really well this time, despite a couple misplays. 3-1 in matches and 7-2 in games. The mana was a little clunky, but it was worth it to play Bolas. I rarely like playing blue in Sealed because it often feels underpowered. I do feel like I have gotten better at playing Limited in the last couple years though, and I can make more of the conservative decisions that win games, like not playing Bolas on turn 4 when I have other 4-drops that I can make the opponent spend removal on. I wish I could have gotten some just-for-fun matches in with the second deck.
If you're interested, my other two mistakes (that I know of) in round 3 were:
- I was holding Sure Strike as a way to kill his Departed Deckhand, and I forgot that it is a cast trigger that kills the Deckhand and I didn't have to worry about counterspells. I also might have gotten better value using my spell in combat against a bigger creature.
- I had enough mana to attack for lethal by using my own Departed Deckhand to make something else unblockable, but I didn't notice for one turn.
As for value, here is what I came away with:
The Bolas card is currently selling for more than my entry fee on its own at about $34. I don't expect it to stick there long term, but it is the kind of card that, even if it flops in competitive Magic, will probably stay over $5 in perpetuity just because it is so attractive for Commander. The rest of the rares (aside from Djinn, which is a bulk reprint) are in the 50 cent - $1.50 range, and in my opinion likely to all become bulk long term. Valiant Knight is probably not good enough to be expensive for competitive play, but the prerelease promo might be attractive to Commander players with knight decks. And 4 sealed packs is $12. So pretty good.
Thanks for reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment