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First Exploration of the New Format
Over the weekend I dove into Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty with my first Sealed event on Arena. In this video, I walk through my process of building a deck for Sealed, including basic card evaluation, settling on colors, making cuts, and tweaking the mana base. I then pilot the finished deck through some games.
Perhaps an obvious observation, but the cycle of mythic dragon spirits are all overwhelmingly powerful. They're large, evasive threats that can close a game out on their own. Moreover, they provide additional value in the event your opponent can deal with them, putting you even further ahead. If you have them in your pool and can feasibly afford to play them, you do so. Unfortunately, I couldn't work Kairi, the Swirling Sky into the final version of the deck, but I certainly tried during my deck construction.
Thankfully, that wasn't the only strong rare in my pool. Ogre-Head Helm does an incredible Skullclamp impression, buffing a creature enough to swing in, and forcing your opponent to either make bad blocks, or let you draw 3 cards. At its base, it enables artifact-matters synergies as well as modified synergies while being particularly pesky to remove. As you'll see, Helm carried me to several victories over the course of the run.
Another card I'd like to highlight is Invigorating Hot Spring. The card is a house, and enables your modified payoffs by disbursing +1/+1 counters to up to four creatures. It also makes for explosive curve-outs, discounting the cost for Walking Skyscraper, then letting you attack with it as a 9/9 haste trampler.
From my first impressions, it seems that a lot of power in this set rests in the commons and uncommons--a welcome change from VOW limited. I'm looking forward to exploring the format more going forward.
The Deck
Below is the version of the deck I settled on. In retrospect, I'd probably change my land count to 10 Mountains and seven Forests. It was more essential to have early access to red than green. Overall, I'm happy with how the deck came together.
Untitled Deck
For more on evaluating cards for Limited and building a sealed deck, check out Paul's article from last week. How was your Prerelease? What cards did you enjoy playing in Sealed? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter: @AdamECohen.
