Table of Contents
Hey everyone! Welcome to the latest edition of Josh writes an article in the middle of a hurricane. If it seems like that happens too often, I live in Florida so that’s just part of life. Today we’re going to be discussing sealed strategy for Wilds of Eldraine as well as how to build your sealed deck. This will give you a great head start when it comes to prerelease so you can win a stack of those sweet, sweet packs.
Wilds of Eldraine (WOE) Limited Guides
- Tier List - Updated!
- Draft Guide
- Quick Draft Guide 🆕
- Archetypes Guide and Example Decks
- Underperformers and Overperformers
- Combos and Synergies
- Prerelease and Sealed Guide
- Mechanics Guide
- White Review
- Blue Review
- Black Review
- Red Review
- Green Review
- Artifacts, Lands, and Multicolor - Part 1
- Multicolor Part 2
- Enchanting Tales
Building Your Sealed Deck
This is my step by step thought process when it comes to building a WOE sealed deck.
Step one is to go through your sealed pool and pull out all of your cards that are draws into a color. This means your bombs, good removal, and even build arounds. Set these aside, but always keep them in mind.
Step two is sorting the cards into their individual colors (Arena or MTGO will handle that part for you) and while doing that separate them into cards you actively want to play, ones that you’ll situationally play (considering build arounds and synergy), and ones that you’re hoping never make the cut. This will let you see which colors are deep, which are shallow, and which might be better off as a light splash.
Step three is evaluating your mana fixing. This can help determine if your deck is even capable of splashing or playing multiple colors. Evolving Wilds is basically an auto include in any sealed deck in this format, there aren’t enough other tapped lands to punish you and it’s highly doubtful you end up mono colored. Prophetic Prism replaces itself and provides something to sacrifice to Bargain so it’s a great enabler if you’re splashing. Outside of those, green provides the best base for building a multicolor shenanigans deck, just don’t make the mistake of playing a color entirely for fixing.
At this point you should have a good idea of what type of decks your pool is capable of building. Now start building different versions of them to see what they look like. This lets you look how strong some builds appear or to see what some others are missing. Try to identify weaknesses that might be able to be shored up by a splash. This also lets you see the possibility of sideboarding into an entirely different deck if you are in a particularly bad matchup. Knowing all the possibilities beforehand prevents you from trying to do it on the fly.
Once you settle on the best version, you just need to figure out your mana base and you are good to go.
Tips and Tricks
Synergy is important. Hopeful Vigil is a decent all-around card, but it’s great because it synergizes with so many things in the set. Being able to use Stockpiling Celebrant to get another knight token or using Bargain to sacrifice it instead of paying the three mana are much better outcomes then what it can achieve on its own.
One of the things I talk about every set is that counterspells play better in sealed than draft. That will continue here, but I feel like Spell Stutter will exceed expectations because so much of this set is mana intensive.
Aura removal such as Cooped Up and Bitter Chill will be perfectly fine. Your opponent can’t bargain the creatures away unless they are artifact or token creatures. Keep that in mind before you use these on something.
Sealed is typically slower than draft (sure sometimes someone has a nutty aggro deck, it happens) so you have a bit more time to do things. While your curve can be a bit heavier, don’t overdo it.
I know I’ve said this a lot in reviews, but Cursed Role does not remove abilities or affect any counters on the cards. It just changes the base stats to 1/1.
You would much rather be playing Troublemaker Ouphe than Spider Food in the main deck. It has a much better fail case of being a random bear. While Spider Food is almost never going to be a “dead card” in this format, you really don’t want to be paying three mana to destroy a Role.
On that note, I would be fine with starting with one Break the Spell in the main. There are a lot of good targets and at least it cheaply replaces itself if you have to hit a Role.
Adventure provides both Psuedo-card advantage as well as modality. I love both of those things, but especially in sealed.
We all know that Gruff Triplets is busted, it also costs triple green. No matter how tempting it is, don’t try to splash it.
There is a massive delta in value of the Enchanting Tales cards. Some people are getting extra bombs like Grave Pact, some are getting a blank card like Omniscience. This, unfortunately, adds another big point of variance in sealed pools.
One of the best sideboard cards in the format is Land Tax. It’s complicated to play it in the main unless you have multiple ways to loot it away since it’s possible it does absolutely nothing. On the draw, it’s Ancestral Recall every turn. No more lands in the deck and straight gas coming.
Just because Smothering Tithe is a great commander card does not mean you should be playing it in limited.
Hatching Plans is a lot easier to activate with Bargain in the set. Three cards for two mana, don’t mind if I do.
Another great thing that Bargain does is give you a way to get rid of enchantments with negative side effects. Already drew a bunch of cards off Necropotence, guess I’ll get my draw step back. Going to die to Bitterblossom, I’d rather not.
Utopia Sprawl is a card that I heard being underrated. Mana ramp and fixing for only one mana is quite good.
Per usual, the best strategy out there is to open a busted pool.
Wrap Up
Thanks for reading! Hopefully this will help you crush some dreams during your prerelease. I’ll be back tomorrow with my review of Artifacts, Lands, and Multicolor Part 1. Until then, stay classy people!
If you have any questions, let me know in the comments below.
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