Rise of the Eldrazi Sealed Strategy & Tips (Revised)

It’s 6:00 am here in Boston and I just came home from a grueling midnight pre-release, slogging through five rounds and putting up an awful 2-3 record along the way. I’m going to blame my pool here, as I had not a single playable rare and nothing comparable to the multiple Staggershocks I saw in other pools. Given though that we’re getting tons of hits from people looking for tips on how this format works, let me clue you in on what I saw and some of my impressions on how to get the most out of your Rise of the Eldrazi sealed pool.

1) While there are certainly tiny guys which will occasionally need to be dealt with; especially decent evasion creatures like Knight of Cliffhaven or Skywatcher Adept; the majority of your problems are going to be huge guys. After a certain point everything is huge. Everything. This means evaluating your cards in terms of dealing with these late game threats is the key to winning. Most anything that can deal with an Eldrazi is worth playable, cards like Guard Duty (surprisingly useful), Smite, and Heat Ray, Daggerback Basilisk or the ultra-bomb Virulent Swipe. Cards like Puncturing Light however, are almost unplayable.

2) Green is everything I hoped and dreamed it would be as a color. Four power is the magic number to really start beating on the ground, and simple commons like Wildheart Invoker and Stomper Cub really get there. Green is also the color with the best chance to accelerate into the Eldrazi Threats, with things like Kozilek’s Predator, Overgrown Battlement, Nest Invader and Growth Spasm to ramp your deck hard, to the point where an opponent played Emrakul against me as early as turn 8. Green is the color of consistent threats, and the best color to slowly beat it’s way through your opponent’s spawn army.

3) Unless your deck is all quick beats, you’ll likely want at least one or two Eldrazi somewhere in your deck. Build to get these out as early as possible, as almost any card that makes Eldrazi tokens is more than playable. Hand of Emarakul was the Eldrazi I saw getting the most play, but also the one I believe is the weakest, as Annihilator 1 is often less than a problem, and it’s often quite possible to double block and kill the 7/7. Ulamog’s Crusher seems just a bit more reliable, both to get into play, and to really destroy resources with the Annihilator 2 ability. Artisan of Kozilek is a mega-bomb as far as I’m concerned, and more than once I saw it bringing another one of it’s Eldrazi friends back from the grave (once on my side of the board as well!)

4) Some notable cards

Oust – Goddamn fantastic. Bounce is not anywhere to be found in this format, which makes sense from a design standpoint as they really wanted to make sure people felt comfortable playing their levelers and umbras, or sacing spawn to put their big guys in play . This card deals with almost everything in one fell swoop.

Knight of Cliffhaven – This one seems obvious, but it gets over the walls and eventually becomes a solid threat in the air. Skywatcher Adept is the junior version of this card, but equally playable.

Venerated Teacher – Me and Jon saw both sides of this card, him getting blown away by it and me doing the same to an opponent. No one expects that your simple board of 2/2s is going to suddenly level into a monster board of impossible threats. In one turn I turned on Skywatcher Adept, Knight of Cliffhaven and Kabira Vindicator all at once. This may be a sleeper bomb, and may be the basis for more than a few winning draft decks in the future.

Wrap in Flames – I wasn’t playing red, but the entire tournament I found myself wishing for this card. It kills three spawn tokens, which I should stress, is incredibly important. Spawn Tokens either stop you from getting through or make sure your opponent gets to put his giant guys into play. A card that stops that from happening is great.

Deprive – Just play it. You’re never really hard up for mana in this format that you can’t return a land to hand, and it stops that which would’ve ruined your day.

Beastbreaker of Bala Ged – Jon wouldn’t shut up about this card. Apparently the best creature ever? Play it I guess, though you probably would’ve anyway.

Dreamstone Hedron – Yes, play this. Mega bomb and a likely first pick in draft.

Roberto:

So yesterday was awesome; everyone had fun, 60 players showed up in Western Massachusetts at X9 Games and we had a blast all the way to 3:00AM.  There was lots to notice as a spectator and as a judge.

• At no time was green not at least one player at 90% of matches.  Almost 80% of players were using green and it’s not really a surprise.
• Six packs is a lot more than 3.  Sealed played VERY differently than draft.  In Zendikar a good curve and a Vampire Nighthawk usually meant X-0 in either format.  Sealed-6 means every player had Eldrazi Drones and could build the behemoth deck if he wanted.  In draft there’s not enough resources for this, so don’t get in the habit of always playing turn 7 fatties.
• REBOUND!  I saw so many players forget their Rebound cards past an upkeep, during sideboarding, and misusing them when they’re countered (Rebound doesn’t work.)
• Dreamstone Hedron, Encave Cryptologist, Hada Sky Patrol, Nirkana Cutthroat, Beastbreaker of Bala Ged.  These cards could singlehandedly take over games.

Hopefully you all had fun and will be showing up today also, and next week!  Pre-Releases are the best, and I hope this info helps you out in your next flight.