In the past few weeks I've began a series of lessons designed to give insight into a way of evaluating the limited environment. I would suggest taking a moment and browsing Part I, Part II, and Part III.

While Part I and II must have been pretty straight forward Part III really stirred the pot. Just to be clear to all, I LOVE the interaction that comes from people making comments on these articles! I encourage EVERYONE to put their two cents in. It really makes us all better. Even if we are disagreeing.

The main gist of Part III was to evaluate creatures based on their 'Expected Turn of Play' or ETP. We looked at Power and Toughness and Abilities and how each changes the ETP of the creature. With the idea of maximizing each and every creature within our sealed deck.

However, my words seemed to come across wrong. Some of the readers assumed that I was saying that a creature whose Power and Toughness benefit equaled its ETP was superior to all creatures that didn't. If this were the case we would all be building decks made of Llanowar Elves, Raging Goblins, and Deathgreeters. One solitary Pyroclasm would be the end of us all.

The idea is to build a deck that effectively uses each turn to maximum potential. Hopefully gaining enough of each ETP so that on every turn we can cast a spell worthy of our current mana situation. Sadly we degenerated into comparing individual cards instead of seeing the ETP of a card as a guide.

So this week we will look at the "situationality" of a card. Every player can think of a time when they got really excited and pumped for a card only to find it under-perform? What leads to this? Why doesn't this card work better? Most of the time it's because the card is only useful given the right circumstances. If we truly want this card to be the "Bomb" that it could be we need to make sure our deck does everything to generate the desired outcome. In sealed this is much harder than constructed of course because we are limited by the choice of cards in our pool.

Flexibility

Use the example of Guul Draz Specter. It has an ETP of 4 or 4.5 depending on our mana base but only yields a 2/2. We expect to add a Turn for Flying but the second ability of the card can make a profound impact. If we can get our opponent Hellbent we now get a 5/5 for 4 with the flying as a huge bonus. If our opponent is planning on holding back cards we can make do with the 2/2 since it puts our opponent in a Static situation. Draw, get Hit, discard, draw next turn etc. It should be fairly obvious that Guul Draz is a good card on his own but he also makes cards like Mind Sludge and even Desecrated Earth more tempting to play. If everything went perfect anyway. However what is really likely to happen is Guul Draz will draw out a removal spell or face a larger flyer and never really get the party going.

This is because Guul Draz is only a moderately Flexible card. He does what he does really well but doesn't really play out more than a 2/2 flyer in most common situations. Don't get me wrong I would still play him and I consider him one of the stronger choices in Zendikar Black. The potential upside is worth the risk and if you consider him just a 2/2 flyer then your opponent has to "waste" a removal on a lowly 2/2.

So sometimes we want to grab a card that is useful in all situations. Cards that are always usable and almost always have a strong effect on the game state are Stable. Stable cards maximize their flexibility by doing what their supposed to do all the time. Bladetusk Boar is a good example of a very stable card. His ETP is high compared to what you get but he will always serve as a good aggressive card. When you play the Boar you know what you're going to get.

A card that would be considered inflexible would be something like Beast Hunt. If you have a high creature count in your pool and your creatures are all better than what you could have put in the ETP of 4 slot then it's playable. But not really. The probability of getting the 3 for 1 is just too small. You're really only likely to see one creature on those three cards and meanwhile you've spent your turn 4 doing nothing to effect the game state.

Time Line

The timing of a card is also critical in our evaluation of potential. Cards all have an ETP but that does not necessarily mean that their timing has to be on that turn. A cards effectiveness changes during the course of a game. Most players understand the concepts of Early, Mid, and Late game but rarely do we think about these things for individual cards. Constructed is polluted with decks that are made for each of these scenarios each seeking to maximize its potential while forcing their opponents into the right stage of the game. We can't exactly force our decks into one of these scenarios in Sealed but we can keep it in mind as we build.

A card like Goblin Guide is crazy good in the Early game. His drawback is livable when your opponent has a full hand. But he starts to falter come midgame as his Power/ Toughness isn't all that big anymore and your opponent would love to filter his draws anyways. Come late game he is almost a waste but he does have a little potential since the life points ratio is so low in most long game scenarios. IF our opponent has low life AND has allowed a clear board then a Guide can sometimes haste his way in for the win.

While Terra Stomper is at the other end of the game. Basically it is unable to be cast in the early or mid stages so it is relegated to the late game. Once he sticks though your opponent is on a fast clock. In many late games he is almost overkill however but that's okay just be cautious picking too many cards like Stomper. It will do you no good to have this card in hand as your opponent beats you before it's even cast.

Living Tsunami is an interesting study in Mid-game cards. On turn 4 or 5 when it is expected to be played it is a power house. 4/4 flying should happen at best on turn 5 or 6 most of the time but here we have a potential turn 4. But that is why there is a drawback and it is a time stopper. Ignoring other effects like Harrow we have basically tied ourselves to our current number of lands for the rest of the time we want to keep the Tsunami. Before using the Tsunami we need to know that we will be content staying in midgame while our opponent continues to grow his mana potential. Of course there are synergies out there with some lands but that will need to be in a future lesson.

The card I love the most for all stages of game is Vampire Nighthawk. It comes into play potentially during the early stages (though at the end) and at that point he is the school yard bully harassing all of the other potential fliers that may stop him. In midgame he can be both aggressive and defensive depending on the board. And still in the late game he represents removal with some very valued life gain at a time both players find their totals dwindling.

Action Reference

Another viewpoint that we need for our cards is what type of action they are designed for. While the action of a game is constantly in flux our ability to assess and play accordingly is critical. Ever reader of Magic should have read "Who's the Beatdown" by Mike Flores. If you haven't you should. In this article Flores describe how critical it is to know your role as a player in the current situation. I would say it's just as critical to know the role of your cards and what game action the would be best in.

For ease of discussion we will look at 4 basic scenarios for our possible actions.

Offensive Action – If you're in this role you are the "beatdown". You find you self ahead in the red Zone and use this to your advantage. Creatures with high Power and good evasion are best for you. The Bladetusk Boar mentioned earlier definitely shines in this type of role.

Defensive Action – Just the opposite. Here we want creatures that can halt our opponents early attacks so at some point in the future we can get to our higher ETPs and start our domination. Giant Scorpion is a good card for this type of game. His 3 toughness allows him to survive a lot of scenarios while his deathtouch will often stop your opponent from risking a bad blocking scenario so therefore will hold his forces back.

Standstill Action - At some point a good defensive deck will need to go into offensive mode to win the game. The stage where neither player feels comfortable attacking because of the possible ramifications is called the Standstill. During this stage both players are waiting to draw some card that will tip the scales in their favor. This is where a card like Bold Defense can truly shine. Without the kicker it tips the scales a little in your favor. If you can manage to kick it you will break through almost any standstill situation.

Race Action – Sometimes both decks feel they are the beatdown and instead of stopping their redzone antics they just take turns bashing face with the hopes that their deck will push the opponent to Zero first. As a spectator love to watch games like these develop. I always find it interesting to note that if the game field was static one player is the obvious winner. The slightest bit of math would show this. Then why does the losing player stay in the race? Because the game isn't static. One well timed removal or a card like Crypt Ripper with its Hasty super Growth can tips the math in your favor. However in Sealed we need to know how many cards we may have to tip the scales. If we don't have these cards then we should avoid the race.

That concludes today's class. I realize that many of the concepts discussed today are open to interpretation and vary significantly in actual game play. It is my hope that you have gain some insight from this discussion and can also develop the intuitive feel for the cards as well. For you homework post a situation and say what card in Zendikar would serve you best at that moment.

Go ahead a sneak out a little early today. Just be quiet down the hall so the Principal doesn't get mad at me.