The Real Deal for T.S.E. Sealed Deck Strategy

To create consistency, I used the same method of randomizing a set of sealed cards for 1 (one) Tempest starter, 1 (one) Stronghold booster, and 1 (one) Exodus booster. I simply fired up Toby Elliot's Sealed Deck Generator here on the dojo (excellent program BTW) and got the following cards.
I think listing all the cards is helpful so that readers can make some of their own choices, then read on to see how ideas compare.

Black Cards: Abandon Hope-X1B - Stay away! Blood Pet-B - Crapola Crovax the Cursed-2BB - Phat flyer Cursed Flesh-B - Great removal Darkling Stalker-3B - Regen! Dauthi Horror-1B- Best turn 2 threat Dauthi Marauder-2B - Quality beatdown Diabolic Edict-1B - banishing is better Dungeon Shade-3B - Overrated Endless Scream-XB - Finisher?? Evincar's Justice-2BB - Underrated Lab Rats-B - Too slow Serpent Warrior-2B - 3 life too much Vampire Hounds-2B - Resource investment	Blue Cards: Capsize-1UU - Do you like it? Contempt-1U - Why ask why? Dream Prowler-2UU - Slow but good Fylamarid-1UU - 1 power flyers just suck Legacy's Allure-UU - Very Strong Mirozel-3U - Thanks WOTC (not) Ransack-3U - Ransuck! Sea Monster-4UU - Wall o' Fish Sift-3U - B- manipulator Spindrift Drake-U - 3 turns/6 damage Thalakos Mistfolk-2U - Blue shadow is crap Tidal Surge-1U - Hmmm smoke crack too? Wayward Soul-2UU - Best blue card here	Land: Forest x4 Island x4 Mountain x5 Plains x4 Swamp x5 Ghost Town Artifacts: Manakin-2 - Ok for Phat decks Patchwork Gnomes-3 - Costly regen
Green Cards: Elven Palisade-G - No comment Endangered Armadon-2GG - Not playable Frog Tongue-G - Surprising but weak Pincher Beetle-2G - Good Predatory Hunger-G - Better than S.Glee Reap-1G - Color hoser Reclaim-G - Great Card! Respite-1G - Fog II Scragnoth-4G - for 5 mana I want 4/4 Skyshroud Elf-1G - Good for curve Skyshroud Troll-2GG - Old Tech Spike Weaver-2GG - Baaa-roken	Red Cards: Aftershock-2RR - Good removal Canyon Wildcat-1R - Can play for me Cinder Crawler-1R - 1 power, no evasion Dizzying Gaze-R - Good Sideboard card Fanning the Flames-XRR - You must play this Flowstone Flood-3R - No Comment Flowstone Shambler-2R - Solid early threat Flowstone Wyvern-3RR - 5 power flyer! Lightning Blast-3R - Of course! Lightning Elemental-3R - 4 Point hammer Mage-il-Vec-2R - Love this card! Maniacal Rage-1R - This card has fans Onslaught-R - Nope Rolling Thunder-XRR - Yup Sandstone Warrior-2RR - Like my bitch	White Cards: Allay-1W - zzzzz C.O.P. Red-1W - cops suck here too C.O.P. White-1W - see above Elite Javelineer-2W - Decent Gallantry-1W - Invulnerability-1W - I wish Nomads en Kor-W - Oracle en Vec-W - rare 1cc Scapegoat-W - if it cost less Spirit Mirror-2WW - slow as..

Based on some of the comments listed above we see that there are two types of cards in this environment. One, the cards that just plain suck, and two, the cards that look good. Not too clever an assumption, however the second category of cards is where you will win or lose the day. Remember, card choice is as important as card play.

For example, let's look at a real sucker card. Fanning the Flames looks great, but is just a big mana suck. You almost have to play it here, but the Rolling Thunder is what makes the decision. Really 4 and RR to buyback 1 damage. Not worth it. I suggest never even wasting the brain power on determining when you can invest 7+ mana to buy this spell back. Just cast if once and be happy you have RED X in your deck.

Another indication from this card pool is that it contains powerful, yet resource intensive spells. This is a significant trend in TSE cards to be aware of. By this I mean, that many of the spells require an inordinant cost of resources. Some of the added resources the cards above need are:

Life- Serpent warrior, Aftershock, Evincar's Justice
Discard- Vampire Hounds, Mage il Vec, Patchwork Gnomes, Abandon Hope
Mana Intensity- Fanning the Flames, Rolling Thunder, Sandstone Warrior, Dungeon Shade, Darkling Stalker, etc.
Sacrifice- Blood Pet, Volrath's Servant, Crovax the Cursed, Endangered Armadon

Read the list above and note that the cards all have costs in the category listed, but some are still good enough to play and some are not. What makes the good ones worth it? This is the eternal strategy question for all limited play. Some good ideas on when and why to use a card that falls into one of the categories above:

Resource Cost	Comment	Good Example Card
Life Points/Damage Discard Sacrificing Mana Intensity	Generally a bad idea. Must be able to deal damage to opponent. Can you use it late game? In a damage race? What will the discard gain for you, and when? Discard to deal damage is good. To regenerate is bad. Sacrifice one thing is supposed gain you something else, life, +1/+1 or better. Avoid anything else. This is tricky. Two colored mana in the CC is the start of manascrew. Make a "heavy" commitment to one color and avoid these spells for your other colors, unless the spell is a gamebreaker.	Evincar's Justice Mage il Vec, Vampire Hounds Crovax the Cursed Rolling Thunder, Darkling Stalker

Each duel starts with nothing in play and each player at 20 life. Every color has many ways to deal damage to the opponent and prevent damage to you. Understand this principle and you will never again say "I didn't get a Thunder again, I have no luck!" Let's get right to the nitty-gritty now. What deck types are popular in TSE limited play? There are two types. One type has red in it and the other does not.

When you start a duel against someone and they lay a first turn mountain, and then a Mogg Fanatic, certain thoughts go through your head. One of them is "Does she have a Rolling Thunder?" This is unavoidable. When your opponent has mountains in their deck you must play with a certain caution. There are no noncreature direct damage sources in any other color. There is of course Cursed Scroll, but there is no need to create a winning strategy around that.

This does not necessarily mean that you must play red, and it also does not mean that playing red will make you win. It simply means that there is a need to play a different game against red. I have been on both ends of the red issue. I had a Tempest only (remember those days?) Sealed with 3 rolling thunders!! I missed the top 8 by manascrew in the last round. I also went 6-1 without red at a qualifier last month.

The overall theory for TSE Limited play is simple - PURE BEATDOWN. There are many control cards available in this format, but most PT players will use those cards to enhance their damage dealing potential. I want cards in my deck that kill!kill!kill! everything they see. Understand the TSE format, know that most games are a damage race. I put out a threat, you put out a better threat. I kill your threat, you take damage. You play a better threat and kill mine. Things get nasty in a hurry. Do not draw a Serpent Warrior when your opponent is serving you with a Wind Drake. That type of card will not win any damage race. Mathematically that is a 7-3 life loss against you for that one play. How you ask? The Wind Drake attacked you for 2, then you went and drew the Warrior. You have to cast it or you have no chance of winning. You pay the three life and then they go and smack you with the unabated Wind Drake again. They don't care that they will take 3 from the warrior. In the space of two lousy turns you have lost 7 life. This scenario is a common occurance by turn 5 in TSE Limited Play.

Let's just not put anything in our deck that cannot help win the damage race or remove a creature from the board. There are many types of cards that fall into the two categories. Rampant growth may seem completely unassociated with either category. Not true, it helps in the damage race. Getting more mana gets more or fatter creatures into play faster. That is what the race is all about. Consider a well placed shock on an opponents attacking threat. Once eliminated, they NEED to respond by summoning another threat. If not, you and your threat are clearly winning the race.

Enough banter. Here are some tried and true card choice theories for you to peruse. I will discuss only cards in the card pool above in order to stick to the main theme here. All this knowledge should be flying through your head as you open and then separate your cards.

Look for your dominant color

Look for a secondary color. Make sure there are castable creatures and removal

Find your Splash color. Two color decks seem quick and deadly, really they are just out of gas.

Try to avoid 1/1 creatures unless they have a damage dealing ability. Even 1/1 evaders need enhancement to kill.

Fill your deck with evaders and ground lockdown creatures. A Hill Giant should not be able to kill you!

Play with all the removal you have. Some situations require creative removal.

Minimum of 15 creatures.

Avoid creatures that are more than 3 to cast and have two colored mana in the casting cost.

Splash color MEANS splashed mana sources.

There is a very distinct line in Power/Toughness in TSE. First line is between 1 and 2 toughness. The second line is 3 and 4 power. Understand these lines and base your removal and defensive creatures on this theory.

Red removal can quickly and easily be sideboarded against. Make sure you have "destroyers" or -1/-1 removal.

Identify your powerful buybacks. Without them you cannot win the late game.

Flyers are better than shadows.

You can't chump block to win.

Be sure you have enchantment and artifact removal in the sideboard, one scroll and you lose the match.

Bounce is expensive and ineffective, don't ride the capsize.

The card pool for this particular deck is a good example. There are two really good, yet intensive colors, Red and Black. A third color was not easily seen. Blue had some powerful spells and flyers, but everything had 2 blue in the casting cost. White was devoid of evasion creatures and lacked any control. Green had a handful of nice splash spells to compliment the red and black. Also adding the elf helps the mana curve of this hungry deck. Without further ado:

Red Cards:	Comments
Aftershock-2RR Fanning the Flames-XRR Lightning Blast-3R Maniacal Rage-1R Rolling Thunder-XRR Canyon Wildcat-1R Flowstone Shambler-2R Flowstone Wyvern-3RR Lightning Elemental-3R Mage il Vec-2R Sandstone Warrior-2RR	Destroyer, can save you from a nasty artifact. Versatility makes 3 damage worth it. Heavy red commitment makes this card work. Don't be a slave to Buybackage. Easy choice. Best used to setup kill with X spells. Top creature enhancer. On a Dauthi Horror it can be game over. Top 5 card in environment. Use wisely! Can perform beatdowns with Rage. Landwalking is key. 3 Power for 3CC is strong. 5 power flying is game over!! We talked about 4 power, celerity can combine with Blast for 8 damage. Wins the pinger wars. Beware the random discard. Such a bitch to support with mana, but a real force with heavy red.
Black Cards:
Cursed Flesh-B Diabolic Edict-1B Evicar's Justice-2BB Crovax the Cursed-2BB Darkling Stalker-3B Dauthi Horror-1B Dauthi Marauder-2B Dungeon Shade-3B Vampire Hounds-2B	Spot removal. Great against regenerators and shadow creatures. Overrated in sealed. Helps against early pressure, and against recovery. This spell does it all, including kill you and your creatures. I suggest only sacing one creature to it to make it 5/5. Lockdown the ground with regen and pump. #1 shadow creature for 2 mana. #1 shadow creature for 3 mana. Overrated in general, but still a flyer. Late game threat. Good early ground threat.
Green Cards:
Reclaim-G Skyshroud Elf-1G Spike Weaver-2GG	Retrieve that Rolling Thunder, FTF, Justice... Included because it can make that all important second red mana. Just hope that you can get this into play.

I suggest a land dispersal of 7 mountains/7 swamps/4 forests. This will ensure that you get at least 2 red or black pretty quickly. Eighteen land and 23 spells is a good percentage. I always go with 41 cards with an extra land. The additional card helps so much and you won't get decked.

Sideboarding is tricky here since there is little extra to add. Perhaps the dizzying gaze against flyers, along with the frog tongue(underrated). Your only defence against buyback is the Abandon Hope, which is weak, but useable. You have no enchantment removal, but you can name really powerful noncreature enchantments on two fingers.

Anyway, this is a first look into advanced strategy in TSE Limited play. I hope that you have read this with an open mind that I am not Finkel, but not a scrub either.