All right, time for some last-minute Grand Prix Toronto practice! I have three more randomly-generated Sealed pools. I’m becoming more and more comfortable with these as I keep building Sealed decks, so I guess that’s a good sign. Now all that’s left to do is pray to Cthulhu that I’ll actually receive a good pool at the Grand Prix. The last time I Day 2’d a Limited Grand Prix was a quite a while ago (Tampa 2009, but who’s counting? I even lost a feature match to Gabriel Nassif.) That’s kind of embarrassing for a supposed “Limited specialist.”

Here’s the first pool:

"Theros Sealed Pool"

• White (20)
• 2 Cavalry Pegasus
• 1 Chained to the Rocks
• 1 Chosen by Heliod
• 2 Dauntless Onslaught
• 1 Decorated Griffin
• 1 Divine Verdict
• 2 Ephara's Warden
• 1 Hopeful Eidolon
• 1 Last Breath
• 1 Ray of Dissolution
• 2 Scholar of Athreos
• 2 Setessan Battle Priest
• 1 Setessan Griffin
• 2 Traveling Philosopher

• Blue (14)
• 1 Annul
• 1 Dissolve
• 1 Griptide
• 1 Horizon Scholar
• 2 Meletis Charlatan
• 1 Omenspeaker
• 1 Ordeal of Thassa
• 1 Sealock Monster
• 3 Thassa's Bounty
• 1 Triton Fortune Hunter
• 1 Triton Shorethief

• Black (11)
• 1 Agent of the Fates
• 1 Baleful Eidolon
• 1 Fleshmad Steed
• 1 Keepsake Gorgon
• 1 Nighthowler
• 1 Pharika's Cure
• 1 Read the Bones
• 1 Returned Centaur
• 1 Scourgemark
• 2 Sip of Hemlock

• Red (14)
• 1 Akroan Crusader
• 2 Demolish
• 2 Ill-Tempered Cyclops
• 1 Minotaur Skullcleaver
• 1 Peak Eruption
• 1 Rage of Purphoros
• 1 Satyr Rambler
• 2 Spark Jolt
• 1 Stoneshock Giant
• 2 Wild Celebrants

• Green (14)
• 1 Agent of Horizons
• 1 Artisan's Sorrow
• 1 Defend the Hearth
• 2 Fade into Antiquity
• 2 Feral Invocation
• 1 Nylea's Disciple
• 1 Nylea's Presence
• 1 Pheres-Band Centaurs
• 1 Savage Surge
• 1 Shredding Winds
• 1 Voyaging Satyr
• 1 Warriors' Lesson

• Land, Artifact, and Multicolored (11)
• 2 Unknown Shores
• 2 Flamecast Wheel
• 1 Fleetfeather Sandals
• 1 Guardians of Meletis
• 1 Battlewise Hoplite
• 1 Chronicler of Heroes
• 1 Kragma Warcaller
• 1 Pharika's Mender
• 1 Reaper of the Wilds

Buy This Deck

Build Process

Yeesh, this pool doesn’t look all that great. The only card that stands out to me is Reaper of the Wilds, and it just so happens that most of the good cards are also black. Having two Sip of Hemlock is nice, but Keepsake Gorgon and Agent of the Fates are quite powerful and give the deck a great long game. Nighthowler is also a good man. Okay, maybe I overreacted a little—this pool is actually pretty good. Maybe I just mentally wrote it off when I saw two Meletis Charlatan. Before I immediately jump to B/G, let’s scan through the other colors. Blue and red are too shallow to be of any use as main colors, and neither has anything worth splashing. White has some solid cards, but between Reaper of the Wilds and Pharika's Mender, I really do think B/G is the way to go. Let’s sketch out what it might look like:

I had to include Fleshmad Steed and Returned Centaurs because, otherwise, this deck wouldn’t have enough creatures. The centaur is okay and has cute synergy with Nighthowler, but I’m almost never happy to play Fleshmad Steed. Because of the lack of early drops, I’m kind of forced to play it. You might question the main-decked Shredding Winds, but this deck is weak to flyers and doesn’t have anything like a Nessian Asp. I think it’s worth it to splash the Horizon Scholar, as it shores up some of the deck’s weaknesses. It makes it less weak to flyers while providing some evasion that is sorely lacking. Plus, we’re already playing an Agent of Horizons, so having access to blue mana gives a small edge. There’s still a Nylea's Presence I haven’t added in yet, which also does double-duty (heh heh duty) powering up Nylea's Emissary. After making cuts, here’s what the deck looks like:

"Final Deck"

• Creatures (13)
• 1 Agent of Horizons
• 1 Agent of the Fates
• 1 Baleful Eidolon
• 1 Fleshmad Steed
• 1 Horizon Scholar
• 1 Keepsake Gorgon
• 1 Nighthowler
• 1 Nylea's Disciple
• 1 Pharika's Mender
• 1 Pheres-Band Centaurs
• 1 Reaper of the Wilds
• 1 Returned Centaur
• 1 Voyaging Satyr

• Spells (10)
• 1 Pharika's Cure
• 1 Savage Surge
• 1 Shredding Winds
• 1 Read the Bones
• 2 Sip of Hemlock
• 1 Nylea's Presence
• 1 Scourgemark
• 2 Feral Invocation

• Lands (17)
• 1 Island
• 7 Forest
• 9 Swamp

Buy This Deck

Warriors' Lesson was an easy cut to make, as we don’t have a ton of early plays nor do we have much in the way of evasion. I decided to cut Artisan's Sorrow, but I suspect it would be sideboarded in frequently. You might wonder why I’m not playing Unknown Shores. The truth is that I absolutely despise that card in all of its incarnations. I don’t think I can afford to play it here since the card I’m splashing costs 6 mana and I have heavy mana requirements in the early- to midgame. I’d say this is a fairly mediocre deck, but it can get there with some decent draws.

Now for the second Sealed pool:

"Theros Sealed Pool"

• White (13)
• 1 Battlewise Valor
• 1 Chosen by Heliod
• 1 Divine Verdict
• 1 Glare of Heresy
• 1 Gods Willing
• 1 Last Breath
• 2 Observant Alseid
• 1 Ray of Dissolution
• 1 Setessan Griffin
• 1 Vanquish the Foul
• 2 Yoked Ox

• Blue (19)
• 2 Benthic Giant
• 1 Breaching Hippocamp
• 1 Curse of the Swine
• 1 Griptide
• 1 Horizon Scholar
• 1 Lost in a Labyrinth
• 1 Meletis Charlatan
• 1 Omenspeaker
• 1 Prescient Chimera
• 1 Sealock Monster
• 1 Swan Song
• 1 Thassa's Bounty
• 1 Thassa's Emissary
• 1 Triton Fortune Hunter
• 4 Vaporkin

• Black (12)
• 1 Abhorrent Overlord
• 1 Asphodel Wanderer
• 1 Blood-Toll Harpy
• 2 Boon of Erebos
• 1 Cutthroat Maneuver
• 1 Disciple of Phenax
• 1 Loathsome Catoblepas
• 1 Pharika's Cure
• 1 Returned Centaur
• 1 Scourgemark
• 1 Viper's Kiss

• Red (20)
• 1 Akroan Crusader
• 1 Arena Athlete
• 2 Borderland Minotaur
• 1 Boulderfall
• 2 Deathbellow Raider
• 1 Demolish
• 1 Dragon Mantle
• 1 Messenger's Speed
• 1 Peak Eruption
• 1 Priest of Iroas
• 1 Purphoros's Emissary
• 2 Rage of Purphoros
• 1 Satyr Rambler
• 1 Spark Jolt
• 1 Spearpoint Oread
• 1 Two-Headed Cerberus
• 1 Wild Celebrants

• Green (11)
• 1 Bow of Nylea
• 1 Defend the Hearth
• 1 Hunt the Hunter
• 1 Nemesis of Mortals
• 1 Nessian Courser
• 1 Reverent Hunter
• 1 Sedge Scorpion
• 2 Time to Feed
• 1 Voyaging Satyr
• 1 Vulpine Goliath

• Land, Artifact, and Multicolored (9)
• 2 Fleetfeather Sandals
• 1 Opaline Unicorn
• 1 Witches' Eye
• 1 Chronicler of Heroes
• 1 Destructive Revelry
• 1 Pharika's Mender
• 1 Shipwreck Singer
• 1 Spellheart Chimera

Buy This Deck

Build Process

What immediately jump out at me are the four (four!) copies of Vaporkin. This has some potential to be an incredibly aggressive deck; I’ll just have to see what color pairs with blue the best. Let’s sketch out the blue cards by themselves and see if there are any obvious deficiencies.

Well, not having enough creatures certainly isn’t a problem here. Now we just need some spells. My eye is being drawn to green, as Bow of Nylea is very powerful, and we have access to two copies of Time to Feed. The removal spells are somewhat problematic because many of our creatures are small, but it shouldn’t be that big of a deal. Let’s now sketch what G/U looks like:

This is still way too creature-heavy for my liking. Green only gives us the Bow and the two Time to Feeds and nothing else for spells. There’s also a gaping hole in the 4-mana slot. I’m going to try red instead and see what that looks like:

This already looks way better. I briefly considered black, but it’s too shallow and doesn’t offer much beyond the giant Demon. We’re looking to be aggressive here, so a 7-mana card isn’t what we’re looking for, despite how amazing it is. This deck would kill for a Sea God's Revenge, but this will have to do. I’ll just need to make three cuts, which is pretty easy in my opinion. Meletis Charlatan gets the axe since we still don’t have all that many spells—and the ones we do have are fairly expensive anyway. We can also cut one of the two Benthic Giants since the card is generally unimpressive, although it’s a fine to side in sometimes.

"Final Deck"

• Creatures (17)
• 1 Arena Athlete
• 1 Benthic Giant
• 1 Horizon Scholar
• 1 Omenspeaker
• 1 Prescient Chimera
• 1 Purphoros's Emissary
• 1 Sealock Monster
• 1 Spearpoint Oread
• 1 Thassa's Emissary
• 1 Triton Fortune Hunter
• 1 Two-Headed Cerberus
• 2 Borderland Minotaur
• 4 Vaporkin

• Spells (6)
• 1 Griptide
• 1 Spark Jolt
• 1 Curse of the Swine
• 2 Rage of Purphoros
• 1 Dragon Mantle

• Lands (17)
• 8 Island
• 9 Mountain

Buy This Deck

I can’t believe that Abhorrent Overlord and Bow of Nylea are sitting on the bench, but here we are. Sometimes, you just can’t afford to play your best cards. I definitely recall Elspeth, Sun's Champion sitting my sideboard at the prerelease. It sounds harsh, but you have to lay down pocket rockets from time to time.

And here’s the last pool of the day:

"Theros Sealed Pool"

• White (12)
• 1 Battlewise Valor
• 1 Cavalry Pegasus
• 1 Ephara's Warden
• 1 Gift of Immortality
• 1 Glare of Heresy
• 1 Last Breath
• 1 Leonin Snarecaster
• 1 Scholar of Athreos
• 1 Setessan Griffin
• 2 Silent Artisan
• 1 Soldier of the Pantheon

• Blue (23)
• 1 Annul
• 1 Benthic Giant
• 3 Breaching Hippocamp
• 2 Coastline Chimera
• 1 Fate Foretold
• 2 Gainsay
• 1 Meletis Charlatan
• 2 Mnemonic Wall
• 2 Nimbus Naiad
• 1 Sea God's Revenge
• 1 Shipbreaker Kraken
• 1 Stymied Hopes
• 1 Thassa's Bounty
• 1 Triton Fortune Hunter
• 2 Triton Shorethief
• 1 Voyage's End

• Black (15)
• 1 Blood-Toll Harpy
• 3 Boon of Erebos
• 1 Cavern Lampad
• 1 Lash of the Whip
• 2 Loathsome Catoblepas
• 2 March of the Returned
• 2 Rescue from the Underworld
• 1 Returned Phalanx
• 1 Scourgemark
• 1 Tormented Hero

• Red (16)
• 1 Akroan Crusader
• 1 Deathbellow Raider
• 2 Demolish
• 2 Dragon Mantle
• 2 Fanatic of Mogis
• 1 Flamespeaker Adept
• 1 Ill-Tempered Cyclops
• 1 Lightning Strike
• 1 Minotaur Skullcleaver
• 1 Ordeal of Purphoros
• 1 Priest of Iroas
• 1 Spark Jolt
• 1 Wild Celebrants

• Green (9)
• 2 Centaur Battlemaster
• 1 Fade into Antiquity
• 1 Leafcrown Dryad
• 1 Nessian Asp
• 2 Pheres-Band Centaurs
• 1 Voyaging Satyr
• 1 Vulpine Goliath

• Land, Artifact, and Multicolored (9)
• 1 Temple of Triumph
• 2 Flamecast Wheel
• 2 Guardians of Meletis
• 1 Opaline Unicorn
• 1 Akroan Hoplite
• 1 Battlewise Hoplite
• 1 Fleecemane Lion

Buy This Deck

Build Process

Yuck. Usually, what you want in a Sealed pool is for a lot of the good cards to be concentrated in a small number of colors. This pool has a smattering of mediocre cards across all five colors, so building this will be more difficult than the other pools. And holy crap, what is it with Meletis Charlatan today? This is the fourth one! The only bomb is Shipbreaker Kraken, so I’d like to play blue, all else being equal. I have a bit of a different process building pools like this one—in which it’s not clear what colors you should be playing. I’m going to curve out the decent creatures from each color, and that should shed some light on which color combinations are feasible.

From the looks of things, it appears that playing black is out of the question. Black only offers four creatures, and they’re all at different spots of the curve. In order to play some crucial 2-drops, we will have to play either green or white. G/W does let us play Fleecemane Lion, but the mana curve is just awful. The only colors that have any decent late-game plays are green and blue. That simplifies things considerably, as now our only choices are either W/U or G/U. We got our wish to play blue, but only because this pool doesn’t grant much of a choice. You can make the argument to play a straight three-colored deck, but since the nonblue colors have the early plays, I don’t think that would work out well. That said, I think I will splash the Fleecemane Lion either way since it’s still great on turn seven.

I’m going to go with G/U since green’s creature quality is much better than white’s. Battlewise Hoplite isn’t a good enough reason to go W/U. Here’s what it looks like:

I’ve also snuck in a Divine Verdict. I think splashing it is going to be necessary, as the deck would otherwise have no removal. Stymied Hopes is not usually a card I like to play, but I think it’s fine here because of the lack of playables, and it gives us something to do if we don’t draw a creature to play on turn two. We just need to make a few cuts—probably some of the 5- and 6-mana creatures. Here’s my final list:

"Final Deck"

• Creatures (16)
• 1 Fleecemane Lion
• 1 Leafcrown Dryad
• 1 Meletis Charlatan
• 1 Nessian Asp
• 1 Pheres-Band Centaurs
• 1 Shipbreaker Kraken
• 1 Triton Fortune Hunter
• 1 Voyaging Satyr
• 1 Vulpine Goliath
• 2 Centaur Battlemaster
• 2 Coastline Chimera
• 2 Nimbus Naiad
• 1 Opaline Unicorn

• Spells (7)
• 1 Annul
• 1 Divine Verdict
• 1 Stymied Hopes
• 1 Voyage's End
• 1 Fade into Antiquity
• 1 Sea God's Revenge
• 1 Fate Foretold

• Lands (17)
• 2 Plains
• 7 Island
• 8 Forest

Buy This Deck

Well, I guess it was inevitable that Meletis Charlatan would eventually make the cut in one of my decks. We’re really all-in on a giant flying Centaur Battlemaster. It will have a hard time against a removal-heavy deck, but it should do okay against the aggressive decks because of all the fat butts.

That’s all I have on my plate this week. Next week, I should have a sweet Grand Prix report for you guys—unless I crash and burn of course. As much as I would enjoy writing about going on a crazy bender on the streets of downtown Toronto, I don’t think my fearless leader Adam would approve. If you see me at the Grand Prix, feel free to say hi!

Until next time,

Nassim Ketita

arcticninja on Magic Online

http://www.youtube.com/nketita