Table of Contents
Hey everyone! There’s been many mysterious Murders at Karlov Manor and you have been tasked with solving the case. By that, I mean figuring out how to win your prerelease. I’m here to help you make that dream a reality with my Prerelease and Sealed Guide that will discuss building a MKM sealed deck as well as some helpful Tips and Tricks.
Building Your Sealed Deck
The first thing that you need to do is sort out your power cards. These are going to be your bomb rares, good removal, and busted uncommons. They will be the biggest draws into a color as well as things to keep in the back of your mind for splashing purposes.
The next step is to pull out your mana fixing. This includes lands such as Escape Tunnel, Public Thoroughfare (even if you don’t necessarily want to play it, you want to know the possibilities), and the rare dual lands along with cards like Topiary Panther and Nervous Gardener. This will give you a good idea about what the real possibilities are for your deck. If you have the right fixing you can go crazy on splashing bombs, but if you don’t you are going to be a lot more restricted.
After that you should sort the remainder of your cards by color into piles of cards you definitely want to play, cards you are fine playing with, synergy cards, and cards you hope don’t make the cut. This lets you see which of your colors are deep and which would be better off as a splash. It’ll prevent you from jumping in to “I want to play this color because I have there 3 really good cards” when the rest of that color is full of subpar filler.
By now, you can probably eliminate at least one color from contention. Next you want to build various combinations of the remaining colors to see which ones look the best. This lets you see any holes in your build whether it is lack of interaction or a lack of early plays. See if it is possible to fill those holes through a splash or even multiple splashes if your mana base can support it.
Before finishing up, you need to be very honest with yourself about how it lines up against other decks. If your deck doesn’t have the power level to pull out wins against a similar level player, you might want to consider building a low to the ground aggressive deck to try to steal some wins instead. Its also a good option to have in your back pocket to side board into if you run into a situation where someone’s deck is way better than yours.
Now that you’ve figured out what deck to play, all that is left is for you to figure out your mana base. Then you’re going to be on your way to victory and collecting some of those sweet packs.
Tips and Tricks
You need to evaluate The List and Special Guest cards for this format. Just because they were good in previous limited formats doesn’t mean they are good here.
On that same note, don’t think something is good in limited just because it gets played in old constructed formats. For the love of all that is holy, don’t play Show and Tell.
Sealed tends to be slower so you can typically get away with playing more high-end cards and card advantage spells. That also means Mind Rot effects tend to have targets so you can bump Cerebral Confiscation up a bit compared to draft.
While counterspells tend to be better in sealed, I would still prefer to not play Reasonable Doubt unless I was a tempo deck.
Splashing a creature that can Disguise gives you an out when your mana doesn’t line up. A warded up Gray Ogre isn’t great, but its way better than a dead card.
That doesn’t mean you should play an off color disguise creature if you’re a card short. I’d rather play an eighteenth land than that.
Synergy can be very important. Let’s say you are playing Chalk Outline then you value Rubblebelt Maverick and cards that can Collect Evidence higher than you would without it.
On that note, don’t go too far for synergy purposes. Don’t play Agency Outfitter, Magnifying Glass, and Thinking Cap just because you have them.
While cracking clues seems expensive at two mana, being able to pay it when its convenient makes it about equal to 3/4 of a card when you’re evaluating them.
There are multiple sweepers in the format (No Witnesses, Deadly Cover-Up, Ill-Timed Explosion) so be wary of an opponent who seems to be avoiding commuting to the board.
There are also multiple ways to pump an entire side at instant speed (On the Job, Greenbelt Radical ) so keep that in mind if an all-in attack seems suspicious. On the subject of group tricks, Eliminate the Impossible is actually a very good card in a format filled with two power creatures.
Cases can be an amazing amount of value out of one card if you can consistently solve them. They are pretty subpar if you can’t. Evaluate where your deck stands with that before putting them in. Don’t look at them like Sagas, I’ve seen too many people assuming they will always end up getting full value.
There are a lot of cards that let you choose which creature to suspect. It can often be correct to choose their best blocker if you’re the beatdown. That will often give you more bang for your buck than giving one of your creatures menace.
Removal isn’t as valuable as it used to be since cheaper cards produce more value these days. You do need ways to interact, but don’t run a ton of it. That means don’t play bad removal unless it’s the only choice you have.
On that note, I think playing a single Make Your Move could be fine if you’re low on ways to deal with a larger threat.
While not as far ahead of the curve as Thraben Inspector was when it came out, Novice Inspector is still a premium common.
While most of the bombs in this set are obvious, Cryptic Coat is a card that people may not realize is a bomb because it doesn’t read like one. It will be very good, trust me.
There are a lot of cards that can’t be countered in this set. You might be wondering why they’d print those when there aren’t a ton of counterspells. It’s because they can target creatures with ward without paying the ward cost.
If one of your friends try to talk you into playing Leyline of the Guildpact, it might be time to find new friends.
Per usual, I would highly recommend busting a ton of sick bombs. Outside of that I’d say the most important thing is to have fun.
Wrap Up
Thanks for reading! Hopefully this guides you to victory this weekend at your MKM prerelease. I’ll be back tomorrow to continue my complete limited review of the Murders at Karlov Manor with part 2 of the Multicolored cards. Until then, stay classy people!
If you have any questions, let me know in the comments below.
You can also find me at:
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