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Are you ready to mix it up in the Guilded city of Ravnica? The throwback theme continues on Arena as we get an old school sealed event to get crazy in. While the last Ravnica Mixer event was draft, this one is sealed so be prepared to be playing three colors with almost every pool. I’ll be going over what each guild is trying to do as well as which color is the best to splash in with it.
Event Details
- Duration: April 8, 2022 @ 8:00 AM PST to 15, 2022 @ 8:00 AM PST
- Format: Ravnica Mixer Sealed
- Entry Fee: 12,000 Gold or 2,000 Gems or 1 Sealed Token
- Ends After: 7 wins or 3 losses, whichever comes first
- Match Structure: Best-of-one matches (BO1)
The format is Ravnica Mixer sealed with 3 packs each of Guilds of Ravnica and Ravnica Allegiance.
One of the coolest things about this event is that they are testing out offering a gold option to enter a sealed event (but will not apply for the upcoming Streets of Capenna Sealed). It’s actually a much better deal to enter with gold than gems so get in on that sweet discount if you can.
Event Rewards
| Wins | Rewards |
|---|---|
| 7 wins | 2,200 gems and 3 packs |
| 6 wins | 2,000 gems and 3 packs |
| 5 wins | 1,600 gems and 3 packs |
| 4 wins | 1,400 gems and 3 packs |
| 3 wins | 1200 gems and 3 packs |
| 2 wins | 600 gems and 3 packs |
| 1 win | 400 gems and 3 packs |
| 0 win | 200 gems and 3 packs |
Building Your Sealed
No matter what advice I give you, obviously the first thing you’re going to do when you open your sealed is to check if you won the rare lottery. So, we’ll start after you’ve done the victory lap around the room for your triple mythic open.
Now that you’ve settled down, the first thing I like to do is to add all the cards that I actively want to play so I have a better idea of how deep each color really is. This prevents you from thinking “my black is really awesome” when you actually have a lot of undesirable cards with only a few that really stand out.
The next thing I want to look at is what mana fixing you have available. This can let you know whether you can splash your power cards or if you need to try to build a more aggressive deck. Especially in this format, the fixing is going to be hugely important to having a functional deck.
Unless your sealed was insane, it’s usually pretty easy to eliminate two colors that just don’t get there. Now look over the remaining colors and make combinations of two-color decks to compare which have the best mix of curve and power level. You can also see if any of the combinations are missing something like removal or a way to finish the game.
When you’re comparing the two-color versions, you are almost definitely going to be at least a few cards short so try to fill in the gaps with splashed single pip removal or power cards. Once you make your final choice, you’re just a mana base away from running the table.
Archetypes
White Blue Azorius
Azorius is its usual combination of attacking with flyers while using control cards to keep yourself alive. It has some really powerful creatures that pull double duty as a threat and a control card like Azorius Skyguard and Chillbringer. Even the off guild pack can give you some solid commons like Watcher in the Mist and Muse Drake.
As much as people loved to do it in RNA draft, it’s going to be pretty much impossible to pull off the Clear the Mind deck in sealed. It’s still a solid playable if you have a slow deck without many win conditions, but with only three packs it drastically lowers the odds of opening two along with enough control cards.
For the third color, I would prefer to add black control cards such as Artful Takedown or Dead Weight. These will help you lock down the ground while you peck away in the sky.
White Black Orzhov
Orzhov loves to grind the opponent into dust using afterlife to make most trades a two for one. While the mana makes casting it’s sign post uncommon difficult, Basilica Bell-Haunt is well worth the effort for a great body, a discard, and three life. There is also some nice removal floating around in Mortify and Final Payment.
This color combo also boasts one of the most absurd bombs in these sets in Ethereal Absolution. If you are lucky enough to open that sexy beating, do your best to splash it in anything as it is a hugely game warping effect.
Similar to Azorius, I think splashing to make an Esper deck is the go-to plan here.
White Red Boros
Boros is all about small creatures bashing the face while growing each other with the mentor ability. Don’t underestimate how fast you can end the game with a bunch of dorks backed up by a few removal spells. Some overperformers to look out for are Parhelion Patrol and Luminous Bonds. Cosmotronic Wave also fits right into this deck to provide some reach at the end of the game.
Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice is such a bomb that is tailormade for this deck offering a pump with some abilities thrown in or tossing around +1+1 counters like it’s going out of style..
While this is the deck I least want to splash in, it’s going to be a necessity of the format so I would add in Green for some Naya action mostly focusing on efficient creatures. Specifically avoid Centaur Peacemaker in this combo as you really don’t want to be giving your opponent life.
White Green Selesnya
Selesnya goes wide and uses its little dorks to convoke out larger creatures. Rosemane Centaur is a key common that provides a huge, vigilance body quickly. Don’t forget to attack with vigilance creatures before convoking with them so that you can have your cake and eat it too.
Trostani Discordant is a walking Glorious Anthem that comes with four power worth of life linkers. It even has the weird little bonus of taking your stuff back if your opponent somehow steals it.
For the splash color, I would add red for some of those hot removal spells like Lava Coil and Justice Strike.
Blue Black Dimir
Dimir uses surveil as pseudo card advantage while playing a control style with removal and discard. Disinformation Campaign can be such a disgusting card by adding a two card swing to every surveil you have. Nightveil Predator is certainly no slouch in the uncommon department either with deathtouch, flying, and hexproof providing a nasty concoction to torture your opponent.
Speaking of frustrating your opponents, Thief of Sanity might be one of the most annoying cards to play against in the history of Magic. It is a must answer or lose the game type of card that starts ripping apart your deck to steal your bombs on turn three.
Some white cards fit right into this control shell with Grasping Thrull providing both a flying threat and a bit of extra life to stabilize you.
Blue Red Izzet
Izzet is the exact same spells deck that you were expecting it to be. One of the strengths of this deck is that there are a lot of cards that fit the theme in every set as red burn and blue card draw are evergreen effects. Crackling Drake and Murmuring Mystic provide fantastic payoffs as you Skewer the Critics and Radical Idea your way through the game.
While Niv-Mizzet, Parun might seem like a dream to pull off, as long as you are only splashing a third color and have solid fixing it can turn into a real nightmare for your opponent. It feels like playing combo in limited and usually elicits a quick concession.
While Temur is an option for the splash, I would prefer to head into Grixis for black removal spells that better compliment your theme.
Blue Green Simic
Simic is based around using adapt to grow your critters into real monsters. Aeromunculus and Sauroform Hybrid are totally fine on rate commons with the adapt option as a nice threat of activation thrown in. Gyre Engineer is also a huge overperformer in this deck with the double ramp jumping you to six mana on turn four for some real shenanigans.
If you played any constructed during Ravnica times, then I am sure Hydroid Krasis needs no introduction. A bunch of extra cards and life tacked onto a giant flying trampler is an insane beating that will swing almost any game in your favor.
Either red or black are fine splashes to gain access to the removal spells that this color combination is normally missing.
Black Red Rakdos
Rakdos is all about using spectacle to turn your early advantage into a snowball effect. Ill-Gotten Inheritance is a wonderful way to turn on spectacle every turn while putting a very real clock on your opponent. Blade Juggler is a great payoff as a 3/2 Phyrexian Rager can pull you ahead on cards while still adding a relevant threat to the board.
One of the big combos to look out for is Dagger Caster and Bladebrand as a six mana one sided wrath. Make sure to hold full control when you cast the Caster to make sure Arena doesn’t rob you of this glorious opportunity.
Due to the aggressive nature of the Rakdos deck, I would prefer to be splashing green to add some efficient creatures to the mix.
Black Green Golgari
Golgari is all about the graveyard with undergrowth giving you bonuses off of the number of creatures in your graveyard. This can lead to some ridiculously huge monsters with Rhizome Lurcher and Molderhulk really benefiting from any kind of self mill you can dig up.
Ochran Assassin and pump spells can let you Thicket Basilisk and Lure combo it up like it’s 1993 all over again. Just be sure to wait for the opening so you aren’t the one being blown out.
Blue would be my preferred splash so you can take advantage of the surveil cards to fill your graveyard.
Red Green Gruul
Gruul is living that riot life either putting extra counters on or hasting their opponents into oblivion. Savage Smash is one of the better fight cards that’s been printed pumping extra damage through while clearing the way for efficient beaters like Frenzied Arynx.
Gruul Spellbreaker is just as good as you would think a 4/4 trample for three is. It also takes away a lot of tricks on your turn since everyone forgets about the hexproof until it’s smacking them in the face.
White can provide a decent splash for more great attackers. Hopefully the mana gods are kind to you or those critters won’t be so great by the time you can play them.
Tips and Tricks
- I cannot stress enough how important having good mana is going to be. This really effects aggressive decks more than control decks as the value of their cards goes down over time.
- The gate payoffs are a lot worse with only having the ones you open and not being able to force them. Still possible, but nowhere near as busted.
- While synergy is great, over-all power level is going to dominate with the mixed format.
- Some split cards like Thrash and Warrant are still worth playing even if you don’t have access to the second color.
- Lockets can provide fixing that replaces itself later. Don’t be ashamed to play a couple.
- This is one of the blocks where pacifism effects were still good.
- I shouldn’t have to say this after months of Virus Beetle, but Burglar Rat is a playable card so you can hold an extra land to not get wrecked by it.
- There are multiple sweeper effects in the format including Deafening Clarion, Ritual of Soot and Kaya's Wrath.
- Be careful of Cosmotronic Wave, losing a couple of creatures hurts, losing the game is another story.
Wrap Up
I hope this trip back to Ravnica has you prepared to zip back in time to battle Nicol Bolas all over again. May you stack piles of gems, but most importantly have a great time doing it.
If you have any questions, let me know in the comments below.
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