Pioneer Masters Phantom Sealed – Midweek Magic Event Guide

Hey everyone! It’s deep enough into the new year that I think we’ve all had the opportunity to properly recover from whatever your choice of celebration was. Now that we’re back on a normal schedule, it is once again time for another Midweek Magic. You might feel a touch of déjà vu this week since we just did a Phantom Sealed last week so I’m sure you can guess this week’s format.

That’s right, this week it is going to be Pioneer Masters Phantom Sealed. Some of you just got really excited while some of you groaned so loud that I could hear it from here. You don’t have to waste any wild cards, but sometimes you get a pool that you’re just hoping your opponent concedes. On the bright side, you’re all going to open busted pools so there is nothing to worry about.

I’ll hit you with some event info and then a basic guide to building a sealed pool so you can get out of here.

Event Details

Open six Pioneer Masters packs—with all three Pioneer Masters bonus sheets available—and add basic lands to make a 40-card deck, then play against other players as much as you want.

Find out more details about this and upcoming Midweek Magic events HERE.

• Duration: January 7th, 2025 @ 2:00 PM PST to January 9th, 2025 @ 2:00 PM PST
• Format: Pioneer Masters Phantom Sealed
• Entry Fee: Free
• Ends After: You can play as much as you like for the duration of the event.
• Match Structure: Best-of-one matches (BO1)

Event Rewards

Building Your Sealed Deck

The very first thing you want to do is sort out your key cards. These are going to help you shape your game plan whether you are planning to win by overall power level, settling into a more controlling build, or possibly trying to go low to the ground aggro. An honest assessment of your pool will give you the best idea of which axis will be the appropriate plan of attack. One major thing to note is that you need to have a high gate count to support the payoffs so you’re at the mercy of RNG for that one.   

Your key cards are your bombs, mythic uncommons, and high-end removal. They are cards that you feel can have an extreme effect on the game. Once you’ve determined what type of build your sealed pool can support, we can move on to mana fixing.

You’re almost always going to be playing every Evolving Wilds and Pilgrim's Eye that you open no matter what deck you build. There is the whole dual land gates cycle running around to help ease your problems when it comes to mana. That means that there is a good chance that splashing for power is going to happen unless you bust a nutty two color streamlined deck.

Next you need to sort out your pool by color. While you are doing this you want to separate each color into cards you actively want to play, cards you’ll situationally play, and cards you hope you don’t have to run. While you are making these evaluations keep in mind what you decided your path to victory is. Don’t be afraid to reevaluate that decision if that plan isn’t properly supported.

Now you should have a good idea of what colors are possible to play and which are better off as splashes. Next you should start building different combinations so you can identify any weaknesses in mana curve, removal suite, or ways to win the game. Once you settle on the right build, you are just a mana base away from running the table.

Wrap Up

Thanks for reading! I’ll be back next week to prep you for…Momir…. Until then, stay classy people!