Article ChannelFireball: Microsealed

[Jason Waddell]

You can put them here, sure. Sounds fun!

 

[GenericZero]

[c lightning bolt]Bolting[/c] the [c birds of paradise]Birds[/c].

Best typo in the article award goes to...

Spoiler

...I don't know, I just liked seeing that typo..

 

[BennyD]

My friend Dexter has an unpowered cube which we draft with larger groups pretty regularly. Given his atypical work hours (gigging musician) and my free summer (teacher), we got together on a weekday to try for a full microsealed series.

Ben Deck 1: GW Winter Elves

Arbor Elf
Avacyn’s Pilgrim
Noble Hierarch
Mayor of Avabruck
Skinshifter
Voice of Resurgence
Eternal Witness
Mana Tithe
Journey to Nowhere
Winter Orb
Banishing Light
2 Evolved Wilds
2 Forest

Dexter Deck 1: BRw Reanimator

Oona’s Prowler
Pack Rat
Ophiomancer
Geist-Honored Monk
Shriekmaw
Angel of Serenity
Greater Gargadon
Faithless Looting
Animate Dead
Recurring Nightmare
2 Evolved Wilds
Mountain
2 Swamp

My deck took advantage of the synergy between mana elves and Winter Orb to lock my opponent’s mana up while I continued to access my own. Unfortunately, Dexter’s redundant discard outlets and reanimation spells were all super cheap, rendering Winter Orb impotent. Luckily, my white removal suite (Journey to Nowhere, Banishing Light) was enough to keep his deadly creatures off the table permanently and give me game one.

I was flush with mana last game, so I got greedy and went down to three lands, while plugging in some graveyard hate. Dexter sided against my low toughness creatures and optimized his land for better reshuffles.

Ben’s Sideboarding

Out: Forest
In: Scavenging Ooze

Dexter’s Sideboarding

Out: Greater Gargadon, Evolved Wilds
In: Earthquake, Swamp

Game two saw me miss a couple early land drops, and then have my elves blown out with a Winter Orb on table. This led to a painfully slow game where an Ophiomancer snake token slowly ate through my life total.

I saw the need for a board wipe of my own, and graveyard recursion wasn’t cutting it when it was so easy to reshuffle.

Ben’s Sideboarding

Out: Eternal Witness
In: Firespout

Game three was the closest so far, as his Oona’s Prowler smacked me for three each turn, and I ground pounded with weenies, while keeping him off of reanimated fatties. I missed a game-saving Firespout in the endgame (forgot it could hit both fliers and non-fliers). Dexter let me take it back to see what would happen, but he won that way as well.

Match Record: Ben: 0, Dexter: 1

Ben Deck Two: UB Ashiok Control

Delver of Secrets
Phantasmal Image
Snapcaster Mage
Venser, Shaper Savant
Reanimate
Vapor Snag
Impulse
Memory Lapse
Control Magic
Evolved Wilds
3 Island
Swamp

I packed bounce spells and ways to make Dexter’s creatures work for me, while Ashiok was permanently removed his threats from the game. Delver was an early threat that tangled favorably with Oona’s Prowler and the Monk’s Spirit tokens.

Reanimating Geist-Honored Monk on turn one was pretty much the end of game one right there.

Dexter saw no more need for his creature removal, trading it for discard spells to get rid of my answers.

Dexter’ Sideboarding

Out: Angel of Serenity, Earthquake, Swamp
In: Sin Collector, Blightning, Plains

Game two went a bit better for Dexter, but my Ashiok went to work on most of his deck, while Oona only got a couple of punches in before he had to stay back and block.

Match Record: Ben: 1, Dexter: 1

I predictably side out the reanimator-specific hate for reliably useful early discard spells.

Ben’s Sideboarding

Out:

Reanimate, Vapor Snag, Island

In:

Inquisition of Kozilek, Thoughtseize, Swamp

Dexter employed the help of some Hexproof creatures, Planeswalkers, and high-powered equipment, hoping to blank my creature control.

Dexter Deck 2: BG Rock

Llanowar Elves
Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
Sylvan Caryatid
Thrun, the Last Troll
Sylvan Library
Maelstrom Pulse
Sword of Feast and Famine
Kiora, the Crashing Wave
Batterskull
Vraska the Unseen
City of Burnwillows
Evolved Wilds
2 Forest
Swamp

Game one was a nailbiter, with a twice-recurred Phantasmal Image posing as both threats and answers, and Dexter cycling his life total down to 1 in a chance to answer my final threat. Unfortunately, he didn’t find one and I finished him off the next turn.

Dexter liked the match-up and just traded card quality for early discard of his own.

Dexter’s Sideboarding

Out:

Sylvan Library

In:

Wrench Mind

I, on the other hand, wanted to get rid of my targeted creature answers for more appropriate ones.

Ben’s Sideboarding:

Out:

Phantasmal Image, Venser, Shaper Savant, Control Magic

In:

Innocent Blood, Diabolic Edict, Dreadbore

Game two was a blood-bath as Ashiok just demolished his deck. I don’t remember any of the details, I just remember us remarking on how good Ahsiok was in this format. To be honest, she won all four of the games for me. The other pieces of the deck helped facilitate the victory, but Ashiok did all of the heavy lifting.

Match Record: Ben: 2, Dexter: 1

This forced me to retire the deck, and we both went back for our third decks. I went all-in on the goldfish plan, seeing as I had no idea what he would build.

Ben Deck 3: Mono Red Aggro

Figure of Destiny
Epochrasite
Gore-House Chainwalker
Hellspark Elemental
Plated Geopede
Hell’s Thunder
Firebolt
Searing Blaze
Turn // Burn
Fire // Ice
Bonfire of the Damned
2 Evolved Wilds
2 Mountain

Dexter had the same idea of goldfishing, but took it in a different direction, opting for a Tinker package in a ramp shell.

Dexter Deck 3: UB Nick Tinker

Baleful Strix
Nightveil Specter
Vampire Nighthawk
Myr Battlesphere
Dark Ritual
Miscalculation
Prismatic Lens
Coalition Relic
Tinker
Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
Evolved Wilds
2 Island
2 Swamp

Game One I ran into mana problems, and only got halfway there before Dexter’s game-winning threats came online.

Ben’s Sideboarding

Out: Firebolt
In: Mountain

Dexter’s Sideboarding

Out: Prismatic Lens, Tinker, Island
In: Force Spike, Lightning Bolt, Evolved Wilds

Game Two was a lot closer. My mana was smooth, and I managed to take his Nighthawk out before he could gain any precious life reserves. Unfortunately, his Myr Battlesphere made a second appearance in two games, and my last-minute miracled Bonfire of the Damned didn’t buy me enough draw steps to get the last five points of damage.

We ended the day there, as we both had stuff to do. Final score:

Match Record: Ben: 2, Dexter: 2

 

[BennyD]

Didn't have time for a best-of-7, so we pared the card pool down to 72 and played best-of-5. Didn't have as many synergistic decks, and specific answers were harder to come by. But it was otherwise fine.

The two 2-0 decks were:

Orzhov Reanimator

Creatureless Boros Control

 

[Jason Waddell]

Jokulhaups + Assemble is an interesting win condition.

 

[BennyD]

Yeah, it was pretty unstoppable with the smaller card pools. I had used up Disenchant with my previous deck, and literally had no more answers for Enchantments. My closest answer was to Clever Impersonator his Oblivion Ring, but once he saw Clever Impersonator, he sided out Oblivion Ring. Ajani Vengeant was pretty rough, too, because he could afford to wait until he had taken most of my creatures out of action before dropping it.

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

Is it a consequence of the cube lacking answers or just your sealed pool?

 

[BennyD]

Just the sealed pool. White and green have all of the usual suspects, and blue has a significant amount of bounce (and counter, obviously). Red and black would have a hard time dealing with enchantments in any sealed pool, though.

 

[BennyD]

Still playing Microsealed a few times a year, and it's now my favorite format of all-time. The deckbuilding and gameplay decisions are just so much richer and denser than any other format. The only thing I miss about other formats is drafting. So, I was brainstorming an idea for a format obviously titled "Microdrafting". And I'm looking for input on how to make drafting work within the Microsealed parameters.

My initial idea is for 4-8 players to draft 45 cards (non-land) and play three rounds of swiss, preparing a new deck for each match. Cards used in each match, including sideboarded cards, would be removed from the player's pool for building their next deck.

Problems:

1. No sense of metagame deckbuilding. One neat feature of Microsealed is that decks are built in response to previous winning decks, allowing for the type of rock-paper-scissors metagaming that occurs in constructed formats.
2. Weak drafting signals. With the need to build three separate decks, almost any card is viable, making signaling very difficult. This leads into the third problem.
3. Goodstuff. Given the weak signaling and need for three decks, does everyone just draft the best card in every pack and make actual deck choices later?

Any proposed solutions or other ideas for the format are welcome. Thanks in advance.

 

[James Stevenson]

Man, that was a bangin' format, I totally forgot about that.

I don't know how to make microdrafting work, but I'm thinking it might be cool to draft 15 card decks as a fast way to draft if you dont have the time for a full serious thing.

 

[BennyD]

Yeah, but I wonder how many cards you would need to draft to get a solid 15-card deck. Part of what makes Microsealed interesting is that synergy is better than raw power. Maybe draft two cards from each pack? That way, you can plan your synergies better without relying on unknown cards to come to you, while simultaneously shortening the time.

 

[Jason Waddell]

Still playing Microsealed a few times a year, and it's now my favorite format of all-time. The deckbuilding and gameplay decisions are just so much richer and denser than any other format. The only thing I miss about other formats is drafting. So, I was brainstorming an idea for a format obviously titled "Microdrafting". And I'm looking for input on how to make drafting work within the Microsealed parameters.

My initial idea is for 4-8 players to draft 45 cards (non-land) and play three rounds of swiss, preparing a new deck for each match. Cards used in each match, including sideboarded cards, would be removed from the player's pool for building their next deck.

Problems:

1. No sense of metagame deckbuilding. One neat feature of Microsealed is that decks are built in response to previous winning decks, allowing for the type of rock-paper-scissors metagaming that occurs in constructed formats.
2. Weak drafting signals. With the need to build three separate decks, almost any card is viable, making signaling very difficult. This leads into the third problem.
3. Goodstuff. Given the weak signaling and need for three decks, does everyone just draft the best card in every pack and make actual deck choices later?

Any proposed solutions or other ideas for the format are welcome. Thanks in advance.

I've tried several variants on the "draft multiple decks at once" formats, but it's always been a little bit headache inducing. In the end I tended to simplify things so my brain could handle it, like, "this deck is blue-red and this deck is green-white", but it always ended in the decks being a bit, uh, conservative maybe?

Random idea... what if you laid out a bunch of 5-card packs on the table, and had people draft those to form their pools? Or maybe, like, bigger packs, but some of the cards are face up and some of the cards are face down.

If you really wanted to do drafting, you could also try having Pack 1 = Deck 1, Pack 2 = Deck 2, ...

Probably none of these ideas are perfect, but, uh... they're ideas!

 

[EliteArcanist]

Complete tangent, but thanks for commenting on this years later and introducing me to this format; microsealed looks really awesome. Now I just need to find someone willing to try it out with me.

 

[japahn]

Haven't tried it yet, but I definitely will give this format a shot. Any ideas to make the shuffling mechanic less decision intensive though? It's quite spikey.

So, 15 unique card decks is like a 60 card decks with 4-ofs, with very consistent draws. I suppose that's why it feels like brewing.