One Trick to Improve at Limited
To be a well rounded player, limited play is a requirement. If you want to step up your game, you’ve come to the right place. Below is a general guide on how to approach the daunting task of how to properly evaluate cards.
General Sealed Advice
Bombs are a major defining aspect of the sealed formats, but can also spell disaster for those learning limited:
When playing a format where everyone gets 6 packs, a lot of bombs are going to be opened and you are incentivized to use them as the building blocks for a sealed deck. The issue is that a majority of deck making errors are built on the backs of these bombs. It is easy to over assign value to these cards without properly evaluating their place in the deck (more on this later).
This can lead to a lot of issues, as the deck is now being built around an assumed game plan without taking into account if they are positioned to do so. This is the home of sketchy four color mana bases, D tier creatures, and questionable artifacts.
Unlike draft where you can draft a bomb early and then steer your choices towards picks that help you reach that game plan, sealed is a predefined pool. It’s exciting to open the big red dragon and not pay attention to the fact that you opened no red removal.
Practice
When cracking packs, set your rares aside face down. Evaluate the commons and uncommons first to see what your strongest and weakest colors are. Now check out what you opened. Your decision making process will now be driven by the cards you already evaluated.
Have a game plan, build the deck not the pile.
Success in magic is defined by tempo, and that means a deck needs to have a clear goal. Ask these questions:
How is this deck going to win the game?
In limited, this is usually straight forward: smash your opponents face with big creatures and flashy spells. If everyone has the same plan to win the game, then the winner will be defined by tempo advantages. It is easy for players to lose a lot of value in the early turns due to not having plays. This is usually due to Top-Heavy curves and/or sketchy mana bases.
When evaluating your cards, you need to evaluate not just the cards on their own merit, but the colors as they exist on the mana curve (creature/non creature). You may have a lot of powerful cards in a color, but if they all cost 4-5 mana you run the risk of inefficiency if you don’t have a viable game plan to consistently play them. You can look at other colors that support it the best on the curve to evaluate different deck options.
How can I win consistently?
It is Essential that your deck have a good mass of two & three mana value creatures (In recent sets some of the one drops have also been very good). If you fall behind early on board, you have to become reactive rather than proactive. To avoid being put on the early defensive, and to situate yourself for the mid-late game you must be doing something with your mana. Unspent mana is lost tempo, and the mana for the first few turns can provide significant advantages.
How am I going to stop my opponent from winning?
This goes beyond removal. I hear people complain all the time at pre-releases that “their deck would have been better if they opened more removal”. If I had to hazard a guess, he likely built his deck incorrectly. Removal is great, but is not a crutch upon which all successful decks have to rest. Tempo is still the name of the game. The faster you can kill your opponent, the less removal you will need. If you open bad removal, or poor late game options, start looking at your highest concentration of cheap mana value creatures and combat tricks a build towards aggro. Don’t get stuck on the problem, find a different solution.
Mechanics and Signposts
In order to maximize tempo, it is vital that you understand what each color pair is trying to do. Recent sets have put a lot of stock into building decks that synergize well to create additional value from plays. Take the time to go read the official rules for all of the new mechanics so you know how they work, and how these interactions play with each other. Also, take a look at the signposts uncommons (And 1 cycle of commons this set).
These are the two color pair gold cards. The mechanics of these cards will often paint a picture of what that pair is trying to do. While some cards are universally good, many new cards have variable levels of value depending on the rest of the deck (Enablers/Payoffs is the common short term for synergy based decks. There has to be a balance of both).
For sealed keep an eye open on these synergies as you make an assessment on color pairs, as you can often ensure extra optimization. Note that for draft, the ability to draft cohesive decks is an essential skill to master to be able to compete at high levels.
Shorthands
Plan for 23 Cards/17 Lands.
On Average 14-16 creatures/7-9 non creatures, this can vary depending on the color pair (Ex. Red/Blue will often runs 12-14 non creatures when attached to a spellslinger mechanic in the set)
Splashing is fine (I regularly run one at pre-releases) but be careful about weighting three colors equally. Know your base color pair, and build the splashes off that. Do not add additional cards of that color that do not have incredible value to your deck. Keep an eye open on any colorless fixing you may open (Or green if it is one of your base colors) Three color cards and high mana value bombs with single pips are worth splashing for. As is, 1-2 single pip premium removal (Clean kill, no setup) if you are hurting for interaction.
Don’t forget to swap cards back out if you sideboard during a match
If you follow these few steps you will see an improvement in your limited play. In turn, you will become a more well rounded player and see improvements in other elements of the game. Remember, properly evaluating cards is a life long skill so be patient with yourself.
