Hey everyone! With these Arena Directs popping up, I need to go back and update these sealed guides from prerelease to more competitive terms. It also lets me add in some of the knowledge we collected throughout actually playing the set instead of basing it off of predictions.
To start off the first Arena Direct for Outlaws of Thunder Junction is from July 26th until July 28th. It costs 5,000 gems a pop. If you manage to get six wins you get two, that’s right two, boxes of Outlaws of Thunder Junction Play Boosters. If WotC is unable to deliver those boxes, then you get $250 instead. There is no limit to the amount of times you can enter or win.
Building Your Sealed Deck
The first step is always to check out what your power cards are. These are the key cards of your sealed pool. They are going to let you evaluate right up from what your main path to victory is. You can look at these and determine if you can compete at a high power level with other decks, if you’re better off going a more controlling route, or if your best bet is to try to go under other decks with an aggressive approach.
If this was best of three, you would also be evaluating whether you had multiple approaches that you could sideboard into. Since Arena Directs are only best of one, you are forced to settle on the one build that you feel has the most game against the field.
These key cards can be everything from busted bombs (and I can assure you that there are plenty of them running around Thunder Junction) to mythic uncommons to high end removal. Fair warning, there is a huge amount of variance in pools here because of how the play boosters are set up.
The next step is to sort out all of your mana fixing. This is going to include all of your dual lands, Conduit Pylons, Mirage Mesa, Oasis Gardener, Silver Deputy, Outcaster Greenblade, Hardbristle Bandit, and even treasure makers. This is going to let you know how nuts you can really get with your deck.
Sometimes you can play all of your bombs and sometimes you have to narrow it down to a more focused approach. This format has a ton of fixing so you usually have the option to play anything that isn’t double pipped as long as you don’t get too crazy. I’ve seen plenty of five color sealed decks that would have been much better off as three so be realistic here. It’s very dependent on your pool.
Next, you should sort your cards by color. While doing that you should also separate them into piles of cards you definitely want to play, ones you’ll situationally play, and ones you hope you don’t have to play. This lets you see how deep each color really is and prevents you from thinking a color is stacked when it is actually a few high-end cards with a pile of undesirables. When making these evaluations keep in mind what you decided your best approach to winning is so you can put them in the proper context.
At this point you usually have a good idea of what colors you really want to play and which are better off as splashes. Then you start out doing different builds and see which one looks the best. Then check out how different splashes look in each one. Once you settle on the best build you’re just a mana base away from crushing some dreams.
Tips and Tricks
Sealed tends to be slower than draft unless someone busts the nuts. The decks are less focused so that gives you more time to play your spells making slightly more expensive cards or card advantage better.
As I discussed in the deck building section, sometimes your best option is to be going against the grain of those slower decks with a low to the ground aggro deck that goes under them while they durdle and stumble on mana. The white aggressive decks aren’t too hard to rustle up with Trained Arynx leading the way.
Counterspells also tend to be better in sealed because of that extra time. You also can expect everyone to have some powerful cards worth countering since they have six packs worth of goodies. Hard counters are preferred, but you’re still playing Phantom Interference if you’re blue. I shouldn’t have to say this, but on the subject of counter spells, Mana Drain is an insane limited card.
Green was pretty clearly the best color as far as draft was concerned. In sealed it still has a high power level as well as providing fixing without having to fight with anyone over it. There were jokes about every sealed match being Multicolor Green against Multicolor Green. It’s still probably right to default to that unless your pool dictates otherwise.
Even though power is important, synergy can be what makes the difference between good and great decks. Deadeye Duelist might seem unimpressive at first glance, but it is a key cog when you have a bunch of payoffs for committing a crime.
There are plenty of crime payoffs that are limited to once a turn such as Vadmir, New Blood. Remember that you can get two triggers per turn cycle by committing a crime on your opponents turn as well.
Don’t just plot to plot. It takes a lot of strategy to maximize it. Does it seem like your opponent is holding up a counter, then plot to make them waste their mana. It’s pretty easy to set yourself up to double spell with it too. Take your time and figure out your next couple turns before doing it.
Having said that, it’s often right to plot Highway Robbery early on if you have a free spot in your curve. You might end up sitting on it for a bit, but you’ll have a way better idea of what you should be doing with it later.
Some of the mythic uncommons in the set are Outcaster Greenblade, Lassoed by the Law, Buried in the Garden, and Spinewoods Armadillo.
The common duals pinging for one damage matters more than most people think. It really changes the equation for how low you should be willing to go. Going to one life feels like you’re basically waiting to die in this format.
Speaking of those duals, they do target the opponent so they do commit a crime when you play them. Depending on how many payoffs you have, you might want to play the ones that only have one of your colors.
Sometimes you really, really need to commit a crime. Don’t miss the line when you can use one of your tricks to target their creature just to make it happen.
Spree is a great limited mechanic that gives you early options while still adding plenty of value later when you can get it all. They are probably better than most people are valuing them.
Snakeskin Veil is in the set, be mindful of that. It’s always one of the easiest ways to get badly blown out.
Sometimes you can build your entire game plan around a Slickshot Lockpicker and an Archive Trap. Deepmuck Desperado can contribute to that mill plan as well.
Try to avoid walking into Take the Fall. You can usually pick up on it from priority stops. It is just such a huge swing when they kill something, commit a crime, and draw a card for one mana.
Per usual, the best sealed strategy is to open a busted pool. I would highly recommend getting lucky here. Managing to get some big score cards in your pool such as Bristlebud Farmer or Vaultborn Tyrant can make a huge difference compared to getting stuck with a Rest in Peace. You can’t do anything to affect this, but I prefer to properly set expectations.
Wrap Up
Thanks for reading! Hopefully this guides you to victory during the Arena Direct this weekend. Check back tomorrow for my Sealed and Prerelease guide for Bloomburrow. Until then, stay classy people!
If you have any questions, let me know in the comments below.
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