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A Beginner's Guide to Sealed Deck Construction
Kerryn Rubin
February 21, 2005
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"Help! I can't play sealed. I don't know how many characters to play, and how many plot twists. Should I play equipment? Help!"

Most TCG players will play in a sealed event at some point in their life. For some of us it is one of our favourite forms of the game. But playing in your first few sealed events can be very daunting as, to the beginner, it seems like a formless void. This guide is meant for those of you who are just starting out playing sealed (or for those who have played a bit of sealed, but are just not very good at it and are looking for same basic tips).

I wrote my first beginner's guide to limited deck construction a short time after DC Origins came out. At the time I was the local king of DOR draft, and not a bad sealed player. However, recently I looked at the article again and realised it could now be more aptly be called 'A beginner's Beginner's Guide to sealed deck construction'. At the time the game was in its infancy, and all of us were really beginners. So I felt it was time to write a new guide, from a more experienced position (though drawing on some of the material from the original guide). Hopefully it is of use to those of you who would like to get into playing sealed, but are finding it a bit intimidating.

Though I am not a fan of absolute rules, there is one rule I will always stick to in deck building - "The minimum number of cards is the maximum number of cards". A limited deck consists of 30 cards. To win you want to be playing your 30 best cards. You might consider cards number 28-32 in your deck to be of equal value, but they are not as good as the others in your deck. You have to choose, as there is nothing to be gained from watering down the power of your deck. Every card over 30 decreases the average power of the cards in the deck. There may be a few exceptions, but they are very few and far between.

The question I am most commonly asked is "How many characters should I play at each drop?" My usual advice to beginners is to build a curve deck (a deck where each turn you try and utilise all of your resource points by dropping a single character, i.e. a three cost on turn three, a four cost on turn four etc.). Building an off-curve deck is usually more complicated. In a curve deck I would usually include 18-20 character cards. This will vary depending on the card pool available to you and the nature of the set.

The next significant point is where to place the characters on your curve. The curve refers to the number of resources needed to bring the character out. As I explained earlier, you are trying to drop the biggest character that you can each turn. My default curve is shown below, though there will be variation from set to set.

I tend to think of the drops in three main groups: 1-3, 4-6, and 7-8. I would never play a 9+ cost character in sealed, no matter how good it looks. Most sealed games will make it to turn seven and, especially in the earlier stages of a set being released, may make turn eight. Games almost never make it to turn nine, so don't waste one of your precious thirty slots.

1-3:
In most curve decks I aim to have 8 cards in this slot, with the weight being towards three cost characters. Missing a one drop is fine, and I would not recommend playing a one drop unless it has an awesome ability (eg. Alfred ), or doubles as some form of combat modifier later in the game (eg. Quagmire ). Missing a two drop is bearable, but I would hope to start hitting curve from turn two. I aim for 3 cards here or 4 if I am not playing any one cost characters. As a rule, I think turn three is the first 'must hit' turn for a curve deck. You want to always hit your three drop; I try and always play at least 4 three cost characters, and have been know to play 5 if I have been light on good two or four cost characters.

4-6:
Turn four is another crucial turn and I usually play four characters at this cost on my curve. For turns five and six I usually recommend playing three each at these drops. This may change if you are light on seven or eight cost characters, or if you have five or six cost characters that can boost out as a good seven drop (eg. Devilance).

7-8:
Though hitting a seven drop is usually vital when playing a curve deck in a sealed event, I don't usually include more than 2. By turn seven I normally hope to have seen one of them, but occasionally you may miss out. Such is luck. Depending on the availability of a killer eight drop I will usually include this in my deck (usually in addition to the 2 seven drops). I am more likely to do this at a Sneak Peek, as games generally tend to go for longer while people are coming to terms with the new set.

There are 2 main factors that will affect how many characters you play at each drop. The first is the availability of characters with boost that can be played at more than one place in your curve. The most obvious example in previous sets was Sentinel Mark V, whose boost ability made him a very solid five drop. The second are tutor cards that allow you to search for drops. Examples of this include Signal Flare, Bat-Signal or Mysterious Benefactor. A good tutor that is viable in the deck you are playing can usually be included instead of a character card.

The next major question is "How many teams should I play?" In answering this question one first has to acknowledge that generally the card pool available to you in a sealed event will not allow you to only play one team. I recommend playing as few teams as possible, which usually equates to two affiliations. Generally go for your strongest affiliation, and then the team that either fills the gaps, or has a few very good character cards. The reason for this is that when you do not have the initiative you usually will want to be able to reinforce. If you are playing characters from 5 different teams this will be hard. Also, some of the best cards are team stamped (need you to be a certain affiliation to play them), and may well sit as dead cards in your hand if you are not playing enough characters of the required affiliation. That being said, sometimes you may still have to splash characters from a third (or even fourth!) team to fill gaps in your curve.

Finally, power-ups can be the difference between winning and losing crucial combats. Once I have committed to playing one copy of a character I will always try and play multiple copies of the same character (where available) and assuming it is a character worth playing.

The final consideration is what to do with the remaining 10-12 slots in your deck. My advice would simply be put your 12 best and most synergistic, non-character cards in your deck. "What does that mean?" you ask.

Firstly, go for plot twists or locations that are combat modifiers. The bigger the pump, the better the card (unless it comes with a really steep additional cost!). The reality of curve decks is that you win the game by putting your opponent down to zero life before they get you below zero. So pumps win you games. I tend to favour ATK pumps versus DEF pumps, and cards that boost attackers over cards that boost defenders. That being said, a well timed ATK or DEF pump on a defender can often steal you the tempo, so if you have good plot twists of this type then you should play it. Locations that offer reusable pumps (such as Titan's Tower or Gorilla City) are always good, and again should be included where available. I try for at least 5-6 ATK pumps in a deck.

Plot twists that affect board position, like Finishing Move or Death Trap, are always good additions to any deck. As mentioned before tutor cards are also generally very good, but there are some exceptions (I have never liked Secret Files!). Finally, assuming you are playing 2-3 teams, Team-Up cards are always vital, for the reasons explained above.

So now know how to build a 30 card sealed deck. Hopefully, these beginner's tips will help you the next time you go play in a Sneak Peak or a Sealed PCQ. Though I am far from the greatest sealed player in the world, I do play a lot of competitive sealed, and I think that this advice represents a nice starting point. As always, I would love feedback on my articles, and am keen to hear in the forums if you found this useful, or disagree with anything I had to say.

Till next time, may all your draws be good ones.

Kerryn

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