here is the card pool: anyone who feels like playing along should post their build/reasoning below.
LANDS:
Geothermal Crevice
Irrigation Ditch
Tinder Farm
ARTIFACTS:
Lotus Guardian
Tigereye Cameo
Bloodstone Cameo
GOLD/SPLIT:
Armored Guardian
Frenzied Tilling
Llanowar Knight
Ordered Migration
Recoil
Slinking Serpent
Shivan Zombie
Sterling Grove
Voracious Cobra
BLACK:
Bog Initiate
2xMourning
Nightscape Apprentice
Ravenous Rats
Soul Burn
2x Tainted Well
Cursed Flesh
Duskwalker
Goham Djinn
BLUE:
Dream Thrush
Exclude
2x Faerie Squadron
Opt
Phantasmal Terrain
Stormscape Apprentice
Vodalian Merchant
Tower Drake
GREEN:
Nomadic Elf
Quirion Sentinel
Serpentine Kavu
Tranquility
Fertile Ground
Llanowar Cavalry
Whip Silk
White:
2x Benalish Trapper
Capashen Unicorn
Glimmering Angel
Crimson Acolyte
Reviving Dose
Samite Ministration
Shackles
Dismantling Blow
Prison Barricade
Rout
Red:
Bend or Break
Crown of Flames
2x Kavu Runner
Hooded Kavu
Lightning Dart
Rage Weaver
Scorching Lava
Skittish Kavu
Slimy Kavu
Thunderscape Apprentice
Ancient Kavu
2x Pouncing Kavu
Tribal Flames
Kavu Aggresor
I will put my own reasoning and build below, but not being a big believer in white space to think (which is dull), I'll just waste some space instead.
I recommend you scroll through and do your own build and reasoning as a reply, then come up and see what I did. After which I'm
sure you will add a lengthy critical section to your reply.
A little limerick while you think
There was a young fellow of Lhyme
Who married three wives at one time
When asked, why the third?
He replied, 'one's absurd'
and bigamy, sir, is a crime.
now wasnt that better than white space??
Anyway, on to the way I built the deck.
I first of all like to look at the 'IMPERATIVES', which are the cards that you MUST play if you can support them at all.
IMPERATIVES:
Rout
Armored Guardian
Next I usually do a quick rundown of strong and playable creatures per colour (with gold excluded)
Strong Black(2):
Duskwalker
Goham Djinn
Playable black(2):
Ravenous Rats
Nightscape Apprentice
Strong Green(2):
Serpentine Kavu
Nomadic Elf
Playable Green(2):
Llanowar Cavalry
Quirion Sentinel
Strong Blue(4):
2x Faerie Squadron
Tower Drake
Stormscape Apprentice
Playable Blue(2):
Dream Thrush
Vodalian Merchant
Strong Red(6):
2x Pouncing Kavu
2x Kavu Runner
Rage Weaver
Ancient Kavu
Playable Red(3):
Kavu Scout
Kavu Aggressor
Thunderscape Apprentice
Strong White(4):
2x Benalish Trapper
Glimmering Angel
Crimson Acolyte
Playable White:
Capashen Unicorn
Prison Barricade
then , I count the number of removal effects by colour or combination
UB: 1 , B: 3, R: 3, W: 2, U: 1
note that at least 2 of the black and one of the red effects are marginal though.
It should be pretty clear at this point that we have 3 colours to work with:
White
Red
Blue
Now because of the Rout and the powerful but white intensive abilities, we know
that we will need a heavy amount of white. The problem is that both red and
blue have several spells which require double of that colour. So we are left
with 2 different ways tobuild the deck: W/U/r and W/R/u. If we choose to make
blue the third colour , then we lose the following spells:
Stormscape Apprentice + Opt(one drops of your third colour = not good idea)
Dream Thrush + Vodalian Merchant (ditto marginal 2 drops)
2 Faerie Squadron (UU)
conversely, making red the 3rd costs us these cards:
Thunderscape Apprentice
Lightning Dart + Rage Weaver
2x Pouncing Kavu
Also, making red the minor colour makes tribal flames and scorching lava
harder to cast, while blue becoming minor makes tower drake, ordered migration
and armored guardian hard to cast. Since the guardians more important
ability is white instead of blue, the fact that its harder to use is minor.
in my opinion , either build is acceptable, but the W/U/r build is a bit more
powerful and is probably the one I would chose. However, they are close enough
that I will post both builds so that people can make up their own mine and for
purposes of comparison.
Build # 1 (W/U with R)
1cc
Stormscape Apprentice
Opt
2cc
2x Benalish Trapper
Crimson Acolyte
Dream Thrush
Vodalian Merchant
Tribal Flames
Scorching lava
3cc
Tower Drake
Exclude
Dismantling Blow
Shackles
4cc
Glimmering Angel
Ancient Kavu
2x Kavu Runner
5cc
2x Faerie Squadron
Armored Guardian
Ordered Migration
Rout
Lands:
8 plains
6 islands
4 mountains
Build #2 (W/R with U splash)
1cc
Thunderscape Apprentice
2cc
Rage Weaver
2x Benalish Trapper
Crimson Acolyte
Tribal Flames
Scorching Lava
Lightning Dart
3cc
Kavu Aggressor
Kavu Scout
Tower Drake
Shackles
Dismantling Blow
4cc
2x Kavu Runner
Ancient Kavu
Glimmering Angel
5cc
2x Pouncing Kavu
Armored Guardian
Ordered Migration
Rout
Lands:
8 Mountain
8 Plains
2 Island
notes on both decks: Exclude was not in the second one because the second
is more aggresive and doesnt like saving mana, and one of it/tower drake/ordered
migration had to go. And while it appears on the surface that the second build
has better mana consistency, build #1 has opt and the merchant to help that along.
I will post another one of these hopefully sometime mid-week.
(First of all, to make things easier, I'd advise people to specify colors of certain cards like nonbasic land, cameos and attendants. :) Even seasoned players get these mixed up at first glance.)
I think you're taking the wrong approach. In this country, we prefer, I think, to take a look at the commons first, then the gold and rare cards later on. Some of the best players here would not force a weak combination that would be propped up by just a Dragon. :)
As it is, you note from the commons:
Black is weak, with just Mourning and Cursed Flesh. You begin to doubt that you will have heavy R/B, so Soul Burn looks iffy. Duskwalker has BB, but Goham Djinn would be a good splash.
Blue doesn't have a deep bench, but has 4 useful fliers and a tapper.
Green has 2 5-color cards, plus Serpentine Kavu.
White catches your eye with Rout, but what is more important is that Rout comes with 2 tappers, Shackles, Dismantling Blow, a good flyer, and a 4-toughness Prison Barricade (3 toughness is a good number in later Sealed sets).
(I think Crimson Acolyte is weaker in Sealed than Obsidian, by the way. Also note that there is no Tidal Visionary or Blind Seer here.)
Red has the deepest bench with 3 removal spells and nine creatures in the 2-4 mana range, though I think you overemphasize the 4 mana creatures. Crown of Flames looks good with all the red creatures, too. (So does Soul Burn.)
(Side note: Given its evasion, I seriously doubt Hooded Kavu is just "playable". :) )
You think about U/W/R. Looking at the gold, you see Armored Guardian and Ordered Migration, though Voracious Cobra is a bomb if you add green.
I'd go with:
Red (12, with 8 creatures)
Tribal Flames
Lightning Dart
Scorching Lava
Rage Weaver
Kavu Scout
Kavu Agressor
2 Kavu Runner
2 Pouncing Kavu
Ancient Kavu
Crown of Flames
White (6, with 3 creatures)
Shackles
Rout
Dismantling Blow
2 Benalish Trapper
Glimmering Angel
Blue (6, with 5 creatures)
Stormscape Apprentice
Dream Thrush
Tower Drake
2 Faerie Squadron
1 Exclude
Others (3, with 3 creatures)
Armored Guardian
Ordered Migration
Lotus Guardian
This is 27 cards, so I'll cut Kavu Agressor and Rage Weaver, for 15 creatures with good removal. Since we have tappers, we'll have to drop Exclude. The next would be either Dismantling Blow or Crown of Flames, though I wonder if the Crown is good with all the flyers and if tappers and Armored Guardian can get around some enchantments.
For the mana, I'd use:
1 Irrigation Ditch
6 Mountain
5 Plains
5 Island
The mana base tells me to drop Crown of Flames. Dismantling Blow looks like a good panic button since there is no Repluse or Barrin's Unmaking.
The mana base looks a bit too balanced, but I'm not sure if it can be helped since you want the white abilities to come into play earlier, and you have to deal with the WW of Armored Guardian and Rout. Besides, Red has no RR except for Pouncing Kavu, which is a 5-mana play, anyway.
The only change I'd make might be to swap an Island for a Mountain, since Irrigation Ditch can bring out blue, but that is probably not better.
Wait, I think I misread my own construction.
On second thought, replace one Faerie Squadron with the Rage Weaver and swap an Island for a Mountain. I didn't list by casting cost and missed this. :)
For an even more aggressive build, you can replace the other Squadron with Kavu Agressor, I suppose, since you still have a bunch of other flyers, including Lotus Guardian.
I have to disagree with you here rakso.
note #1: Rarity means nothing. You have what you have. The 'must play' section has nothing to do with rarity, but if gives your decka sense of purpose. 'play your best cards' is a common reference.
note #2: hooded kavu is only good if you support black. We don't and its obvious here.
note #3: yes crimson is weaker. but as you mentioned in an earlier post, red aggression is a common thing to encounter at a PTQ, and pro red also saves you from plague spores and smoldering tar.
note #4: with respect to your build, I think you are trying to balance too many cards. There is no way you should have 3 different colours of spells require 2 coloured mana. You will want to have 2-3 white available every game for a) your tappers,
b) shackles tricks and c) your spells. Also, you could have trouble playing early drops since you have them in all 3 colours. I think by trying to use all the best cards, you have bit off more than you can chew, and would lose an unacceptable amount of games to mana screw. This is why I suggested that you pick 2 main colours and go with them. Luckily, you are deep enough that you can do this and still have an effective deck. The only real advantage your build provides you is letting you run both pouncing kavu and faerie squadron, meanwhile that not only is a somewhat negligible advantage since you may nopt be able to cast those, but it also makes your other key spells/abilities harder to use. There is little point to playing rout if you can be at 5 mana without WW, and tappers aren't great if you have to save your only W mana for them. As for Lotus Guardian, I just don't like that cost for a 4/4 and didnt think him necesary. That's a judgement call.
last note: crown of flames not that good, and is another incredibly mana intensive card. Even if I WANTED to play it, I only would with a few more red sources.
Good points, but I noted your main point and figured to de-emphasize the blue. I still put in Stormscape Apprentice since I don't consider him a particularly early creature, but he can be replaced with another Kavu in my build if it's iffy for you.
Another reason I'm not that concerned with holding white mana in my build is that I didn't plan on using Crimson Acolyte in the main, and I put in a more aggressive creature base which will work if I'm tied down to just one white source.
But I am probably looser with the mana than you are, and those are good points.
#1: Rarity does mean something, but in the sense that you rely on spotting certain common cards in each color first, like Agonizing Demise or Benalish Trapper.
#2: Sorry. Thought you weren't making any assumptions yet at that point of the build. :)
#3: My personal opinion is that I'd use it a bit more if I had something like Tidal Visionary. But it's not bad at all, and it's just a personal choice, I suppose.
About the other notes, there are few non-rare 4/4s in Invasion, and any flyer above 2/2 or 3/3 can be devastating. I figure this deck wants to use tappers, so the game might get slower. At that point, a flying 4/4 is amazing.
About Crown of Flames, I just saw that the deck would be red-heavy, and would allow the Angel or Dream Thrush to do funny things, or to have Kavus make better trades.
One question I needed to ask you: Why do you like the red Apprentice here?
Oh, yeah. Forgot to write that I'm not concerned about red Kavus here since this deck can go head to head.
Good question. I guess that one was my bad, I forgot that I couldnt activate early abilities and I was working out the curve.
I also didnt do my homework on Lotus Guardian and forgot he was a flyer. As a flyer, he would naturally get a spot in the deck, although I still think he's hard on the curve.
As for Crimson Acolyte, I guess this is an opinion thing, but I always maindeck at least one of each acolyte when im heavy into white. Against a non-red opponent, I can side it out. Meanwhile, it really causes pain to red decks, and while we deploy creatures fast, I have seen many decks that are not only a bit quicker, but also have more burn. The acolyte keeps them from dropping 1-2 early creats and then burning away all our blockers.
Couldn't activate early activities?
I don't think you have green or black, so you can't activate them at all! :)
Anyway, consensus in my country seems to be to maindeck Obsidian but not Crimson, though things change if you open a Tidal Visionary or Blind Seer.
Um ... typo
although I could activate it with Lotus Guardian now that it's in ..... lol
When looking at a pool of cards, I'm looking for evasion, removal, and creatures with toughness larger than typical for the set (in Invasion that's */3 or bigger).
Artifact
Lotus Guardian evasion
Red
Kavu Runner 3/3
Kavu Runner 3/3
Hooded Kavu evasion
Ancient Kavu 3/3
Pouncing Kavu 3/3
Pouncing Kavu 3/3
Kavu Aggressor 3/2 or 4/3
Lightning Dart
Scorching Lava
Tribal Flame
Hmmm...looks like I'm playing red. I don't think there is any way to overemphasize the 4 mana creatures in sealed if they are 3/3 or better. Haven't you ever heard the rule "whoever has the most Hill Giants wins"? :-)
Green
Serpentine Kavu 4/4
Looks like I'm not playing green.
White
2x Benalish Trapper removal
Glimmering Angel evasion
Prison Barricade 1/3 or 2/4
Samite Ministration removal
Shackles removal
Rout removal
Not bad at all. Most of the removal is creature based and so doesn't combo well with the Rout.
Black
2xMourning removal
Soul Burn removal
Cursed Flesh removal evasion
Duskwalker 3/3 evasion
Goham Djinn 3/3 or 5/5
Solid though not wild about Mourning.
Blue
Dream Thrush evasion
2x Faerie Squadron 3/3 evasion
Tower Drake evasion
Exclude removal
Apprentice removal
Very nice.
Black, Blue, and White all look playable along with the Red.
Looking at the Gold cards
Armored guardian 2/5 heavy committment to UW to use abilities
Recoil removal 1BU
Slinking Serpent 2BU 2/3 evasion
Looks like Blue is in. Who can pass up 2 Faerie Squadrons?
White has Rout, 2 tappers, 1 evasion, 1 other creature, and Shackles. All of them require a heavy committment to white and most need white mana left open each turn.
Black has 2 evasion creatures plus Cursed Flesh to give Fear. Up to 5 removal and a massive Djinn. One of the removal, Soul Burn, is as close to a Blaze as you can get in Invasion sealed. Since we're playing red, its a viable choice.
Looking at support cards:
White has Crimson Acolyte, yet another card requiring a heavy committment to leaving white mana untapped. Plus a couple of cards that can get rid of enchantments. White is also needed to pump up the blue Tower Drake. And it would let you run the blue tapper which also requires white to activate.
Black has Nightscape Apprentice which uses blue and red and would be a nice addition to the deck. The red Hooded Kavu needs black mana for its ability.
I'm going to play with black's evasion rather than constantly needing more untapped plains than I have.
The deck looks like this:
Lotus Guardian
Black:
Nightscape Apprentice
Duskwalker
Goham Djinn
Soul Burn
Cursed Flesh
Blue:
Dream Thrush
2x Faerie Squadron
Tower Drake
Exclude
Red:
2x Kavu Runner
Hooded Kavu
Ancient Kavu
2x Pouncing Kavu
Kavu Aggressor
Lightning Dart
Scorching Lava
Tribal Flames
Crown of Flames
Gold:
Slinking Serpent
Shivan Zombie
7 Mountain
5 Swamp
5 Island
I agonized over Recoil vs Crown of Flames since Recoil is so strong against creature enchantments. But I've got so much evasion that the extra damage from the Crown could shorten the game dramatically or combo well with 1st strike from the Apprentice.
A few notes here : You have a heavy commitment to 3 colours here, with a double spell in each, which I have already mentioned is ill advised. You avoid playing the 2 most powerful spells in your card pool by your choice of colours, and recoil is Far better than crown of flames, evasion or no.
Admittedly the 2 faerie squadrons are compelling, which is why my preferred build is U/W with red. Pouncing Kavu is not as compelling and if you take those and the crown out, then red has only single coloured spells, meaning you can make it a spalsh much easier than any other colour.
And armored guardian only needs a double colour commitmnet to white and a single blue mana. I just can't see anyone choosing black over white for this particular build, particularly since white's removal is actually BETTER than black's in this card pool. Red may be the deepest colour, but White is the most powerful here in my opinion. You are entitled to disagree but looking at all the finished decks I would prefer my U/W with red to the others I've seen here, mostly because of a stronger mana base.
Finally, I just have to say that if you are going to play a deck that needs BB,RR, and UU, there is NO way you can get away with only 17 lands
A few notes here : You have a heavy commitment to 3 colours here, with a double spell in each, which I have already mentioned is ill advised. You avoid playing the 2 most powerful spells in your card pool by your choice of colours, and recoil is Far better than crown of flames, evasion or no.
Admittedly the 2 faerie squadrons are compelling, which is why my preferred build is U/W with red. Pouncing Kavu is not as compelling and if you take those and the crown out, then red has only single coloured spells, meaning you can make it a spalsh much easier than any other colour.
And armored guardian only needs a double colour commitmnet to white and a single blue mana. I just can't see anyone choosing black over white for this particular build, particularly since white's removal is actually BETTER than black's in this card pool. Red may be the deepest colour, but White is the most powerful here in my opinion. You are entitled to disagree but looking at all the finished decks I would prefer my U/W with red to the others I've seen here, mostly because of a stronger mana base.
Finally, I just have to say that if you are going to play a deck that needs BB,RR, and UU, there is NO way you can get away with only 17 lands
sorry for the double post
ATW, a few notes:
1) You cannot just note creatures like that. You need to take into account casting costs and the depth of the bench. Any 3-power card for 3 mana, for example, is not bad (Kavu Scout, for example) and any 2-power for 2 mana is rare in Invasion (weaver or the gold commons).
In this case, I believe the good Kavu selection plus the tappers downplays the importance of evasion (especially Duskwalker and Faerie Squadron) since the ground force is so solid. And you can still use a few flyers if you run into Tsabo Tavoc or something.
2) You don't need WW or UU to use Armored Guardian. At worst, it's a high toughness guy, but you can use him if you have EITHER UU or WW, preferably WW.
3) The decks Nevyn and I built in R/W/U had just as much evasion.
4) I also disagree that Cursed Flesh and Soul Burn can make up for Rout, 2 tappers, Shackles and Dismantling Blow.
5) Ditto with Recoil vs Crown of Flames
6) Your mana curve is very top-heavy
7) Finally, Nevyn, I don't like your U/W/r build because while it uses the Faerie Squadrons and gets the blue tapper out earlier, it is forced to use cards like Vodalian Merchant and Opt over the Kavu bench. I simply don't think blue had enough depth in this pool.
To respond, the beauty of this pool is that there are a number of very splashable red spells, while blue is an all or practically nothing commitment. The vodalian merchant and opt provide the following to the deck:
a) better mana consistency
b) a better chance to get one of your dominating cards.
Meanwhile, the kavu I exclude in that build , mainly the scout, the aggressor and the rage weaver are not by any means overpowering. Remember that most of our removal base is reactive, with the exception of 2.5 burn spells available to us and some junk black.
If you feel the red base is too compelling, that's fine with me, but deckbuilding means hard decisions, but if you're going to play lots of red and white, you have to drop the faerie squadrons (see build #2). I agree the deck you built Rakso uses better cards, but I don't think you can expect consistent performance from it. It comes down to a question of whether you want slightly suboptimal early drops in order to get powerful evasion, or give up the evasion just for a bit more early pressure. I would rather have the first. My knock against your deck is you try to have both, and so may have trouble with either.
To show what I mean, I counted the total coloured mana symbols in each of our preferred builds. My build had 27 ( which would become 26 with the lotus guardian misread)
rakso's had 33
atw's had 30
That might not sound like much of a difference but it is one. Especially since your mana symbols are evenly divided among the colours compared to mine. That is a lot of strain to put on a deck that you need to perform consistently for 10-24 duels in order to make a top 8/day 2.