Article ChannelFireball: Microsealed
- Thread starter Jason Waddell
- Start date
Wee! I'm on CFB!
CML
Contributor
We've done "Cube sealed" for tardy drafters (pick 90 cards of the remaining detritus and a few funsies lands) before, they suffice to make 40-carders so though I love this idea I might try it with 4 packs instead.
That Ira Glass quotation on taste was surprisingly good, considering Ira Glass's taste
That Ira Glass quotation on taste was surprisingly good, considering Ira Glass's taste
Yeah but here you're making four 15-card decks. If you only use 4 packs you'll have no room to maneuver.
I've been playing a few microsealeds and they've been fun. We've been using Evolved Wilds but not the other, and we've kept all the lands in the pool. You don't retire fetches and duals and whatnot, but you do retire manlands and things. Man, I built the nuttiest Birthing Pod/flicker deck for round one, and in each game he Ashioked my Birthing Pod out of my library. Since I'd left all the targets in the sideboard I pretty much just did nothing and lost. Later I had a sweet reanimator deck with Gifts Ungiven and Fauna Shaman to find the fatties in the sideboard. I also ran Shelldock Isle which is nutty in this format.
I would keep it in for the sweetness factor. The wish rule is one of the best parts of the format... And I think the Red zenith is the most insane of the bunch in microsealed.
Aoret
Developer
Tried this tonight with a buddy. Even with my lower power cube, it feels like insanely powerful magic. I can confirm that this format absolutely eliminates the number of non-games that happen. I also agree that the format definitely warps the power of certain cards, but honestly I don't really think that is a bad thing. It allows you to experience your cube cards in a new light by turning some of them on their heads.
We ended up only playing 2 matches. I almost wonder if doing best out of three match wins (with best out of three game wins within each) is a better way to go. 4 Match wins is a lot if you go 2-1 in every game and 4-3 on matches. 21 games plus deckbuilding?
Also, we felt a bit weird about being able to get graveyards back but not exiled cards. In particular, it makes flashback cards kinda shitty. We experimented with a 4 life penalty for shuffling RFG'd cards back into your deck (because we agreed that exiled cards should always be harder to get back than graveyard cards). I can say that it really hurt to pay the four life, but I did do it once. I guess an alternative rule would be a life penalty to put the exiled cards back into the graveyard, but I'm not sure that really works as intended; I'd rather that people couldn't tutor a collection of flashback cards back to their graveyard for even 3 life.
I think I might actually like this even more than grid draft, but maybe that is just because it is fresh. I really like the lands. We actually didn't end up putting them in our decks, but just the fact that I had to consider, and decide not to use the lifegain land enriched the experience. (I was playing burn for most of the games)
We ended up only playing 2 matches. I almost wonder if doing best out of three match wins (with best out of three game wins within each) is a better way to go. 4 Match wins is a lot if you go 2-1 in every game and 4-3 on matches. 21 games plus deckbuilding?
Also, we felt a bit weird about being able to get graveyards back but not exiled cards. In particular, it makes flashback cards kinda shitty. We experimented with a 4 life penalty for shuffling RFG'd cards back into your deck (because we agreed that exiled cards should always be harder to get back than graveyard cards). I can say that it really hurt to pay the four life, but I did do it once. I guess an alternative rule would be a life penalty to put the exiled cards back into the graveyard, but I'm not sure that really works as intended; I'd rather that people couldn't tutor a collection of flashback cards back to their graveyard for even 3 life.
I think I might actually like this even more than grid draft, but maybe that is just because it is fresh. I really like the lands. We actually didn't end up putting them in our decks, but just the fact that I had to consider, and decide not to use the lifegain land enriched the experience. (I was playing burn for most of the games)
Yeah, it's a long format, kind of meant to fill a lot of time if you and a buddy are sitting around with hours to kill. You can also play 1-game matches for time considerations.
Got a chance to test microsealed with a 720 card double-block Ravnica cube last week. Had a lot of fun, the power level was high, and the meta-constraints on deck building really added to the overall feeling. If people are interested I can repost some of the decks we played when I get home.
My main feedback is that like lands, mana rocks might be better left out of pools.
As a clarification, when the tutor rules say 'collection' that is intended to be the cards from your 90 card sealed pool which are not currently in use/retired correct?
My main feedback is that like lands, mana rocks might be better left out of pools.
As a clarification, when the tutor rules say 'collection' that is intended to be the cards from your 90 card sealed pool which are not currently in use/retired correct?
Yes, this is correct.
Just follow the normal rules mid-game.
What about after the game? Does the card go back into your collection or is it retired?
The way we played it is you got to choose, so long as you presented a legal deck for the start of the next game.
We were a little worried about the abuse of tutor spells. With Tinker/Natural Order/Zenith/Pod, you can have all possibilities in all matches, without compromising your draw quality. Retiring the tutored card after each game seemed a fair trade-off.
Sorry, to clarify, the card either:
a) stayed in your deck or
b) got retired
A tutored card would not go back to the collection.
a) stayed in your deck or
b) got retired
A tutored card would not go back to the collection.