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6 months ago ::
Nov 24, 2012 - 10:04PM
#11
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Date Joined:
Jun 14, 2006
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Sealed Deck seems like a good value since I can walk out with cards from every color and get six boosters for the cost of five (that still seems too good to be true, I must be missing something).
You're not missing anything. It's a way for them to sell additional packs as well as generate interest in Magic for the players. They will still make money (since they're selling the packs for more than they bought them for). It's a similar concept as selling a booster box (36 packs) for $120 even though they sell the individual packs for $4 each.
Sealed and draft is how I've built my collection. I haven't really ever bought singles.
If those guys that you're playing with at the tournament have cubes then maybe you could draft thier cube with them some day. It's one thing to own a cube and another thing entirely to have 8 ready and availible friends to come draft it with you whenever you like. If you give them your number maybe they'll call you next time they're cube drafting.
Don't be too smart to have fun
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6 months ago ::
Nov 24, 2012 - 10:25PM
#12
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Date Joined:
Nov 22, 2012
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Thanks for the tip about Sealed, I'll make sure that I have a couple of decks in mind before I go to one. This is like when I was first getting into Street Fighter, I couldn't pick a character because I didn't know what my preferred playstyle would be. It took me a really long time to discover that I liked zoning/keepaway the most. Likewise, with Magic I'm just now learning what some of the possible deck styles are (populate, control, guild-themed, etc.) and it's going to take a while for me to discover which style works for me without just picking the color/cards I like the themes or background of.
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6 months ago ::
Nov 25, 2012 - 6:21AM
#13
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Date Joined:
Oct 27, 2007
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For my deck I tried making a white/blue deck with a focus on detaining or otherwise incapaticating creatures, the idea being that if I could render my opponent unable to block then I could attack all at once with several creatures for big damage. That ended up not working out because I never got any big, damaging creatures, I had to use my many bird tokens to block big damage from black creatures and I didn't draw enough of my control cards.
Has anyone taught you the BREAD Acronym? It is meant to teach you the priority for picking cards in any sealed format. The first three letters stand for Bombs (really strong creatures that win you the game, like Angel of Serenity  ), Removal (e.g. Detention Sphere  in blue/white), and Evasion (anything with Flying, Intimidate, Unblockable). Unfortunately there is less agreement on what the "A" stands for: Aggro is common and makes sense, I've also seen Advantage (as in card advantage). Nobody knows what the "D" stands for, but it is basically everything else you need to fill your deck (Dregs).
My card shop also has "Sealed Deck" on Tuesday nights where you build a deck from six boosters for $20. Given that six boosters should cost more like $24 I might check that out some time.
I really enjoy 6-Booster Sealed, but none of the local shops here do it except durign the prerelease and release events. It's a great format for beginners, teaches deck construction and play while removing the pressure of the draft (and the loss of rares during rare redraft, if your store does that). The price is great too; even with the best online prices you're looking at something like $2.75/booster. If you subtract the $5 the store would minimally charge for organizing/prizes, you're looking at an equivalent of $2.50/booster. I would go every Tuesday if I had access to something like that.
In any case, I'm glad you had a good experience and that you meant some friendly, experienced players.
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6 months ago ::
Nov 25, 2012 - 6:30AM
#14
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Date Joined:
Oct 27, 2007
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One thing that I got out of the experience is that I need more matchup knowledge, which means studying all ~275 cards in the RtR set.
This is actually another advantage of Sealed: You only need to know the cards in one expansion set. Eventually, though, you'll want to play Standard, and that will mean learning more cards. But the more you play the more you will pick up naturally. I started playing again with Magic 2013 and the first time I faced Tamiyo, the Moon Sage  and Snapcaster Mage  I had no idea what hit me – I literally sat in a daze and watched my life drain away...
One good way to learn the cards is to get a copy of the Player's Guide for the expansion set in question. If you buy a Fat Pack for the expansion set (a good idea anyway), you will get one included, but if not, some stores sell them separately (for example, Starcitygames.com has them for $3.99 each, typically). Wizard's own online database, Gatherer, is also a great resource, especially for building constructed decks.
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6 months ago ::
Nov 25, 2012 - 8:33AM
#15
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Date Joined:
Nov 22, 2012
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Thanks for the tips, Hreth. One of my draft opponents told be about BREAD but by that time it was too late for me to apply it, of course. Still, it's something I'll have in mind for next time.
I also didn't know about the Player's Guide, I'll seek that out.
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6 months ago ::
Nov 25, 2012 - 8:35AM
#16
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Date Joined:
Oct 27, 2007
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I also didn't know about the Player's Guide, I'll seek that out.
The Fat Pack themselves are pretty good deals: Player's Guide, nine booster packs, all the land you could need for deck building, and a great storage box, for $35-$40.
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