Aetherdrift Pre-Release is coming to TopDeck this weekend, and we have both old and new players reading up trying to prepare for the new set. You may have already heard, but this is one of the best ways to get into Standard. It’s the only format that allows you to compete against veteran players without them having the advantage of their well-tuned constructed decks. To even the playing field, we’re teaching you how to ace one of Magic’s harder to master formats: Sealed.
WHAT IS SEALED?
Sealed is a format where you are given 6 Play Booster Packs to play with. You open up the packs and use the cards inside to construct a 40-card deck. For Pre-Release however, you get an extra promo card which you can also add to your deck!
Sealed card pool. No promo card here, go play in the Pre-Release if you want one!
CAN I USE MORE THAN 40 CARDS?
Yes, but we advise against it because it will make your deck less consistent.
I OPENED MY PACKS ALREADY, NOW WHAT?
Organize your cards by color to give you a better idea of what deck to construct. Typically you will end up using 2 colors, but you can also go with more if you want.
WHICH COLOR PAIR DO I CHOOSE?
For this part, you have to do your homework and study up on the archetypes for the set (i.e. what the gameplan is). Aetherdrift has a bunch of archetypes that aren’t in your typical set, and a cool racing team concept.
Don’t worry so much on which archetype is stronger. The real question is, which one can you play given your card pool? That’s what lining up the colors are for. You can easily figure out your options from here.
I’m showing you what I ended up making on Magic Online as reference. Let’s break it down slowly. A 40-card deck normally has:
23 Spells
17 Lands
This ensures that you draw enough lands to be able to cast your spells consistently.
Out of the 23 spells, you need:
11-12 Creature Spells
10-11 Non-Creature Spells, with at least 5 Removal Spells among them.
This is to make sure you have enough creatures to fight with, and enough removal spells to remove your opponent’s threats.
THE MANA CURVE
This is a concept in deckbuilding which ensures that you can cast your spells consistently throughout your game, with stronger and stronger spells being cast as you progress. Let’s zoom in on my deck once more.
Notice that most of my spells cost 2 or 3 mana, while I only have three spells that cost 5 mana, and only one spell costing 6 mana. The reason for this is that you want to be able to draw your low cost spells consistently early in the game, but also be able to draw the bigger, stronger spells later in the game when you can cast them already.
A typical mana curve looks like this:
1 Mana: 1–2 cards
2 Mana: 7–8 cards
3 Mana: 5–6 cards
4 Mana: 3–4 cards
5 Mana: 2–3 cards
6 Mana: 0–1 card
This is not a hard and fast rule, if you check my deck I didn’t follow this template to the letter. In fact, I use another rule called the 4-4-2-2 instead. It’s easier to memorize and easier to do as well. So instead of checking all my spells, I just make sure that the creatures follow the curve, which goes like this:
2 Mana: 4 cards
3 Mana: 4 cards
4 Mana: 2 cards
5+ Mana: 2 cards
Again, this is not a hard and fast rule, and you can see clearly that I didn’t follow it exactly.
WHAT ABOUT MY LANDS?
The shop will provide Basic Lands for all players, make sure you return them afterwards! Now as to how many you need, you can just do an even split of 9-8 for your two color decks. But if you want a more scientific approach, I present to you Mana Counting, which is basically a way of computing the percentage of mana sources you need in your deck:
-
Count the number of mana symbols on your cards: My deck has 14 White and 18 Blue symbols, see if you got the same number.
-
Solve for the percentage: 14/32 for White and 18/32 for Blue gives 43.75% and 56.25% respectively.
-
Multiply by 17, or how many lands you’re using: 43.75% of 17 is 8, and 56.25% is 9, roughly. This means that you need 8 Plains and 9 Islands.
SO, TO RECAP:
-
Open your packs and pile them by color.
-
Figure out which cards are good and decide on what colors you’re playing.
-
Make your deck: 23 Spells, 17 Lands. With 12 Creatures and 5 Removals. Don’t forget your mana curve!
-
Count how many of each type of land you need.
-
Sleeve up your deck and wait for your game to start!
CONCLUSION
There you have it, the basics on how to crush your Pre-Release event! This is in no way complete and there are lots of nuances and exceptions to the rules, but we’ll get to those eventually. See you this weekend!!
