Dave at Diehard Games held his first Yugioh sealed tourney last Saturday. It had a modest turnout of around 12 people, a mixture between non-regulars(irregulars?) and "event" players. Battle packs have been sold out at our locals for a while, so the top prize of "more battle packs" was highly sought after. And rightfully so, as Tour Guide, Fiendish Chain, Forbidden Chalice, and a number of staple cards litter the card list. I and a few others actually pulled Tour Guides from our initial packs! Of course, most of us didn't get to keep ours. Setting up the tournament gives you an idea why:
1) Everyone pays to join the tourney.
2) Everyone is given 10 packs and a spreadsheet with every card listed.
3) Upon opening each pack, you mark every card that you found on the spreadsheet, registering them.
4) Once everyone registers all the available cards, you then turn in your cards and the list to the tournament organizer.
5) He then randomly distributes each "package" to each player. You have a 1/Xparticipants chance to get the cards you opened.
6) Finally you build a deck out of the cards you received.
Of course, if you liked what you pulled, you are more than welcome to drop from the tournament and go home with those cards. From what I understand, the general consensus is that you should only drop if you pull multiple tour guides. Though I did get a Tour Guide and Starfoil Lance out of my packs, I was more interested in playing the game than getting loot, so I happily gave my cards away. In return, I got a really, really lackluster stack of cards to make a deck with lol.
If you look at the FAQs for Sealed play, most games are done with a 20 or 30 card minimum deck. Keeping it low makes things a bit more consistent, but it may give you less answers to your opponent's plays. On Saturday, everyone played with FORTY cards (Casual Variant #2). That is 80% of all the cards you had in your pool. This meant that most of us played with a complete mishmash of cards, with very little coherence. I do have to admit, playing with 40 cards was probably more fun than it would have been to use twenty. With 20 card decks, the real fun comes from deck-building. With 40, you are probably running 1 copy of 90% of your cards, so each draw is as random as possible. Keeping a good hand and field is extremely important, as your next card has a high chance of being useless. Some call this aspect "skill" and perhaps that is what makes Sealed fun.
My 40 card deck was probably the worst one out of all attendees. Though I made it to top 4, I can't say that my deck was any good:
Monsters:26!
| x1 Fortress Warrior * x1 Twin Headed Behemoth *** x1 Blackwing - Zephyros the Elite ***** x1 Vortex Trooper ** x1 Naturia Strawberry *** x1 Abyssal Kingshark ** x1 Cyber Jar ***** x1 Treeborn Frog ***** x1 Cyber Dragon ***** x1 Dark Resonator *** x1 The Tricky **** x1 Dark Magician of Chaos ***** x1 Des Mosquito *** x1 Beast King Barbaros **** x1 Jinzo ***** x1 Ancient Gear Knight ** x1 Big Shield Gardna *** x1 Greenkappa *** x1 Stealth Bird **** x1 Injection Fairy Lily ** x1 Blue Thunder T-45 *** x1 Chainsaw Insect *** x1 Toon Gemini Elf *** x1 Luster Dragon **** x1 Old Vindictive Magician **** x1 Psi Blocker **** |
Spells: 7 Traps: 7
| x1 Soul Exchange **** x1 Axe of Despair **** x1 Darkworld Shackles **** x1 Forbidden Chalice **** x1 Premature Burial ***** x1 Pot of Duality ***** x1 Fighting Spirit *** x1 Interdimensional Matter Transporter *** x1 Inverse Universe ** x1 Liberty at Last! **** x2 Pixie Ring ** x1 Blast with Chain *** x1 Half or Nothing ** |
The star ratings on these cards are actually pretty generous. Though you may not agree with me on a few of them, I am really comparing them to cards I could gotten instead such as Fortress Warrior vs Hedge Guard. As you can see, I only had 3 Forbidden cards in my deck. Two of which very good cards, but not the best I could have gotten. One of them, Cyber Jar, is particularly nasty, especially in a higher monster, lower tribute count deck. On the flip-side, most of my losses came from drawing monsters that are simply too weak to take on Archfiend Skull of Lightning or Zaborg.
Gameplay is thought of as a slugfest by most. Play monsters and get in damage whenever you can, and just go back and forth until someone runs out of options. Rare cards like Ring of Destruction, Raigeki, and Xyz monsters make it slightly more difficult, as aggressive play can be countered. Defensive play isn't always reliable either, as Shield Crush, Drillroid, and Gaap the Divine Soldier can flip over your strategy completely. There are also whole strategies you can try to pull off if you are lucky enough. James Fox had Machina Fortress and other machines to support it. You can run Goblin Attack Force monsters alongside Gaap for some serious pain. Burden of the Mighty and King Tiger Wanghu are a no-brainer.
My deck really had no combos, but playing conservatively helped me win. Though there are less and less responses to summons, or excessive backrow, Greenkappa, Harpie's Feather Duster, Torrential and Raigeki all exist. There is also Snatch Steal, Change of Heart, Creature Swap, and Premature Burial that can make rob you of your excessive field. In the end, Sealed play has a bit more thought process than you may have imagined.
I highly recommend playing Seal play whenever possible. It is easy, affordable, and gets you great cards with a lot of longevity (inb4 Tour Guide limited in September).And don't forget that more Battle Packs are sure to come in the future, so you may as well figure out how to play now.
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