Locations
Today's class is going to continue looking at the Limited environment. I understand that the PTQ Sealed season is nearing completion for most of us but there is still so much to cover I feel obligated to continue. Fell free to look back at the other lessons as well.
Choices
Today I want to look at Synergy in Sealed. Synergy is basically how some cards contribute to each other to hopefully make the sum greater than its parts. When synergy is the main focus individual values of the cards and their Expected Turn of Play (ETP) aren't as large of factors. Because of this we are willing to maybe pay more or delay use of a card because it can contribute much more to the general deck strategy at a later point.
We can classify Synergy into various different types. Each of which I will be discussing with you. I do want to clarify that one type of synergy does not preclude another. There will be many cards or groups of cards that cover multiple syngergies.
Functional Synergy
Functional Synergy is where your deck has a cohesive focus. Cards don't feed each other directly but because they all have the same directive the final goal is fulfilled. In Constructed we've come to think of Functional Synergy in three basic types. Aggro, Control, and Combo are the rock, paper, scissors for constructed. In Constructed it is rather easy to fit in these categories since you have depth of card selection. In Limited it is harder to fill just one role. In fact I would say your choices are somewhat limited.
In Limited you need still need a game plan. Even if you picked the cards that yield the most for your mana you will still only have an average deck unless the cards you pick fulfill an overall Functional Strategy. Below I'll list a few choices or descriptors of general Limited deck themes.
Theme Name: War Sirens
Vital Cards: Small Aggressive Creatures, Cheap Removal, Small number of Fatties.
Game Plan: The idea is to harass your opponent as early as possible dealing small damage but doing it a lot. If they drop a potential blocker or an aggressive creature then use your removal to get your guys over. This plan is easy to play but often runs out of gas so a couple of decent sized finishers may be required to complete the game.
Theme Name: Storm on the Horizon
Vital Cards: Small Aggressive Creatures, Creatures with Evasion abilities.
Game Plan: Just like War Sirens you want to hit early and often in an attempt to whittle down your opponents life. The major difference is the lack of removal in the deck. So instead of removing blockers we will go around them. Usually this is in the form of Flying but can also work with Intimidate, Trample, etc. The early creatures basically become cheap blockers that willingly sacrifice themselves to preserve our life totals. I always thought that Whites flavor fits the best here but other colors work as well. It's just that Soldiers willingly die when they see Angels flying overhead.
Theme: Rock and a Hard Place
Vital Cards: Strong Defensive Cards, Evasion creatures, Light Removal
Game Plan: With this plan you need more evasion than Storm on the Horizon used. The idea is to establish your position with a good Defensive structure then follow with Evasion based attacks. Here though the Evaders have to carry the weight but they can because the game will last longer. Your defensive creatures will see to that since they don't just block and die but the block and live. Remember to save your removal for threats that will make it around your defenses.
Theme: Delayed Gratification
Vital Cards: Fat pounders, Mana Acceleration, Early Neutralizers (either removal or Defense creatures)
Game Plan: Early in the game you either delay their onslaught or play accelerators that make your accelerate your ETP. Then you play some large creature that can survive their removal. Creatures with Shroud are extremely potent as well as creatures with protection. Spells that protect your fatties are also good but not required. After your big dogs hit you should be able to eventually pound through their chumps and take large amounts of their life.
Theme: Relentless Assault
Vital Cards: Creatures of all types but especially ones with strong Power to Mana Cost ratios, Combat Tricks.
Game Plan: Hit fast, Hit medium, Hit hard. Whatever you do HIT. Probably the easiest strategy to play. Banking on the fact that you'll see little to no global removal in Limited you just play creature after creature. At some point their removal will run out and they'll be forced to take the hits. Even if they have some defense then you'll overwhelm them with numbers. In this Strategy is where the ETP values that we talked about before come into play the most. You really want a curve that allows you to play a threat each turn.
These themes should be a focus when building a deck. Remember that because of the format you won't be able to force any one particular type. While you may be able to draft with a favorite style in mind Sealed isn't as flexible. You can see that each card type is represented and there is enough overlap that you should be able to find one of these strategies. The real secret is playing accordingly. You must make sure your play choices fit your theme. Even if the game state may look otherwise you know the rest of your deck and your future plays will depend on it.
Mechanical Synergy
The second Synergy type is based on Mechanics. Every block of Magic has its own unique abilities that make it stand out. Sometimes these Mechanics don't affect Sealed but other times they have a huge impact. Splice for example never really carried a Sealed deck. The number and value of Arcane spells just wasn't that high. In Zendikar we actually get two possible deck makers. Both Landfall and Allies give some inherent mechanical Synergy.
Landfall: The best part of Landfall is that it pulls power from cards that normally don't really change the game. In previous blocks the use of land was only to regulate the ETP so that the more powerful spells would only happen later in a game. Now a land can give you so much more. Also everyone needs land so every landfall ability warrants a little extra consideration. In sealed you still can't really sellout to Landfall since it is spread amongst all the colors and rarities. Every Landfall card should be considered with a little extra value because of its inherent Synergy. I would have never guess that just by playing a Forest I could totally change the state of the game.
Allies: Allies on the other hand really need each other. Fortunately many of them are playable on their own right and hitting more is a bonus. Once again they are spread out through the color wheel so have a deck built just for them is hard in Sealed. But adding two or three is complete reasonable. Especially if they fit into you Functional theme.
Operational Synergy
Calling this "synergy" may be a little bit of a stretch but I can't really think of where else to fit it. Operational Synergy is basically having the right mix of Mana and Spells. As a teacher I see a lot of new players and it never ceases to amaze me how everyone seems to fall in the same traps. Players with all levels of Intelligence, Attitude, and Playstyles seem to do the same thing early in their deckbuilding. Both of these traps have to do with Operational Synergy.
Trap 1: Playing with too few lands.
As I discussed earlier lands are very bland when it comes to the overall game. Early players may recognize the need for land but they are much more attracted to the bombs so therefore they feel they should put more spells in a deck and less land. The proper balance between mana resources and mana uses it a never ending saga that all players have. It just seems magnified with newer players.
Trap 2: Spreading yourself into too many colors.
While decks like 5 color control have shown that it is possible to build decks that utilize the best of every color most of us don't have access to the mana base needed for that. Especially true in Sealed. Early players see the value of cards and want to put them all in their decks. Unfortunately having a few of each color land doesn't make your deck work very consistently.
The basic gist of Operational Synergy is finding the proper balance between Mana generators (mostly land) and Mana users (mostly spells). Prior to Landfall you could say that Operational Synergy and Funtional Synergy where diametrically opposed. If you used more land or different types of land you decreased your OS. But using just one color or a lower land count you decrease your FS.
The fight between OS and FS is rarely mentioned because in Constructed we have a larger choice of cards which decreases the friction between the two. We can use multiple mana fixers to make our land base more flexible like the numerous 4 or 5 color creations out there. Or we can find powerful enough effects in just one color to make our mana base more efficient.
In Limited you will rarely find yourself with enough mana fixers to be able to pick from a large number of colors. Conversely you will also rarely find enough depth in a single color to build a deck worth playing to go monochromatic. In fact I would say the biggest hurdle when building a sealed deck is choosing which colors you are going to play. Sometimes the choice of color becomes more important than the actual choice of cards.
I think this will be my last installment in the Choices Series. I realize that I haven't really discussed removal but I think it's kinda obvious how important it is. If you want/need to have me cover something else feel free to post in the comments. Besides I haven't done any articles that have a decklist in quite awhile. That's my favorite article to write. Cooking up some crazy list and see everyone bash / defend it in the comments. Just to stir up the pot, I'm hunting for Comments.
In fact feel free to comment ALWAYS. Even if you're just being a wisecracker like Dustin was last week I still like to hear from the readers. I would say Fans but I won't go that far since I know no one really "likes" their teachers.
Remember that you can always draft even if you're stuffed with Turkey. There's the bell. Have a good Vacation.
