About Joel Calafell
Joel Calafell
Joel is a Level 6 Pro Player from Spain who helped develop well-known combo decks such as Cephalid Breakfast or the
recent Cascade Swans, he loves playing almost every format and has a number of high-profile finishes under his belt:
- Top 8 Pro Tour Kuala Lumpur
- Winner Grand Prix Barcelona
- Three Grand Prix Top 8
- 63 Lifetime Pro Points
- Level 6 Pro Players Club member
Hey everyone!
I am Joel Calafell, a new feature writer for Blackborder.com and really excited to be
part of the Blackborder team and the community! You will be able to
read my column "Feature Sight" every week on Blackborder.com. I will write about interesting topics, reports, format reviews and many
other things. Let’s get things started!
Feature Sight with Joel Calafell
Grand Prix Prague
Next week I am heading to Grand Prix Prague. Probably one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. I’m not really sure if I will have the time to visit a lot of the sights, though, because I am already leaving on Monday. But you always hope to not have much time on Sunday anyway, because otherwise it means you probably missed day 2. :-)
Understanding M10 Sealed
Now let’s talk about the GP. You might think I am just crazy, but I actually LOVE this format. No, no one paid me to say this, I swear. I actually like it, and I am not only talking about draft, but also about sealed. Yes, sealed…
I know many people hate it, because they think that everything comes down to who has the bombs and who doesn’t. Well, that is not exactly true, and to be honest, I’ve heard this excuse every time a new set has been released.
You will all have to face Master of the Wild Hunt, Baneslayer Angel and Siege-Gang Commander at some point or another, but there are actually answers to those things! And well, if you lose to those cards, please don’t complain too much. Just shuffle up again, and try to win the next game. There is a reason why you play best of three, trust me.
Having a good understanding of the format is way more important than relying on the randomness of rare or mythic cards. Those might make you win some games, but only the commons and the uncommons in your deck can make you win enough rounds to advance to day 2.
Synergy, curve and having a coherent game plan, that’s what really matters. You know, it is like those soccer teams that have all the good players and yet they can hardly win anything. Sure, they can have all the talented players they want, but they will probably lose to a team with a better game plan (this is clearly not a Real Madrid reference).
Sideboarding in M10 Sealed
Other than that, I find this sealed format more complex than most people think it is. For instance, I love the fact that sometimes you just build and play with your deck as if it was constructed. I never saw a format in which sideboarding was so relevant, which sometimes makes strategy go to the next level. I’m not just talking about cards like Ignite Disorder, Deathmark, Naturalize or Windstorm; those are the cards that you know, you have to bring in for sure against certain decks. I am talking about learning how to interact with your whole pool and not only with your deck.
M10 Core Set inside
What does that mean? I often see people only paying attention to the 40 card deck that they built at the beginning, and they don't change anything at all during the rounds. Just some random card goes out, some random card comes in. - We are done. - Ready to play?
It really shouldn’t be like this. The main problem is, that you might be missing some interesting and different builds, that might improve certain matchups if swapped correctly (just like in constructed!). Of course sometimes that means swapping an entire colour for another, or splashing some specific one, but sometimes it’s worth it!
Game Situations
Now let’s take a look at a situation like this:
We are playing a decent blue-black deck with evasion. Black is our main colour and composes about the 66% of the deck, so blue is just not that much of a big deal. We are playing against a solid green-red deck with multiple Giant Spiders and Deadly Recluses, which hose our fliers very badly, and it doesn’t seem like we have enough guys to beat them easily, nor enough removal to fight all those good stallers.
Then we check our sideboard, and we see these relevant cards:
2 Emerald Oryx, 2 Stampeding Rhino, 1 Crag Wurm, 1 Enormous Baloth, 1 Borderline Ranger, 1 Centaur Courser, 1 Oakenform
As you can see, green wasn’t that much of a big deal. It had some good commons, but seemed like the colour was too short to even try anything at all. But all that changes after sideboarding. Since we are playing against green, Emerald Oryx almost became better than our previous fliers against those annoying spiders, and with the rest of solid commons, it seems like we have enough cards to switch to that colour. Our new deck is much better against red-green. Cards like Stampeding Rhino, Crag Wurm, Oakenform or Enormous Baloth are just much better against red than against any other decks, and it seems like they will get through most blockers anyway.
Imagine that your opponent is trying to sideboard against those Ice Cages and Illusionary Servants that he saw in your deck during the first game. He is probably now including cards like Ignite Disorder or Sparkmage Apprentice. They seem just terrible against us now, don’t they? We just upgraded our deck so much and in so many ways with just a simple swap, that it would not be correct to say, that your deck is only that pile of 40 cards you built at the beginning of the tournament.. No way. “Your deck” is your entire pool, and you need to know how to work with it in order to build the best list each time. I guess now things don’t look that easy anymore, do they?
Again, imagine a situation like this:
We have a solid green-white deck with many good creatures and some tricks. However, we don’t really have any relevant removal (unless you count Giant Growth or Divine Verdict as solid removal) and our deck doesn’t seem fast enough to rush our opponents.
Our opponent has a really sick deck with Siege-Gang Commander, Master of the Wild Hunt and Ant Queen. None of them will probably get killed by Giant Growth or Divine Verdict anyway, so we have virtually no ways to deal with all those bombs, other than praying for our opponent to not draw them. But considering the fact that there are three bombs in our opponents’ deck…
Then we check our sideboard and we see these relevant cards:
2 Essence Scatters, 1 Mind Control, 2 Cancel, 1 Ice Cage, 1 Divination, 1 Snapping Drake, 1 Merfolk Looter, 1 Wall of Frost.
This time, blue seems quite decent, but we found out green-white was much more solid and it had better cards overall, so even though we considered it, it ended up in the sideboard. Now, we look at it again and we see four counterspells, one Ice Cage and one Mind Control, probably the best ways to deal with all those bombs. Then, what if we swap green for blue, take out some Forests, add some Islands, and transform our deck into a fresh UW control deck? We now have up to six ways to deal with the bombs, and even if the deck would be slightly worse on average against any other thing, it looks much better against the kind of deck our opponent is playing.
Can you see it? Sideboarding is so important in M10 and in general!
Those were just very simple examples, but I am sure there are many similar cases, and the swaps can go into almost any direction. This kind of things are what I like the most about the format, even though it seems like not everybody thinks too much about them, just make sure you do!
M10 Draft
On the other hand, M10 draft is probably a completely different world. I have drafted so much that I think I have already tried every strategy multiple times and I have played with every single rare and mythic already, which means A LOT of drafts.
Thus far, though, the only advice I can really give you, is to rate creatures higher. I mean, most of the time, whoever has the best creatures wins. So it doesn’t make sense to pick random effects over them. Sometimes I see people ending up too short on creatures just because they picked too many Giant Growths, or too many Divinations, Essence Scatter, etc. So don’t think a creature is always worse than a trick, because in this format it’s not really like that. Pick them! You won’t regret it. That way you might end up with a deck that doesn’t have to play cards like Silvercoat Lion or Runeclaw Bear, or even worse: Goblin Piker or Coral Merfolk as fillers. Maybe it’s just me, but those creatures seem so bad to me that when I see one on my opponent’s side of the table, I’m always happy. I guess that’s why I see cards like Bog Wraith, Howling Banshee, Stone Giant or even Dread Warlock getting passed later than I would ever expect. I wish I could always have those!
Most overrated and underrated cards in M10 limited
By the way, Soul Warden might just be the most underrated creature in the format. I once gained 38 life with it! And Sleep might very well be the most overrated card in the whole set. I’ve seen people playing it even in decks where it does almost nothing at all. Just don’t play it in decks with an army of Horned Turtles.
I also think that many people are heavily influenced by the bombs they open. This is just like any other draft format, ok? Please, drafters out there (especially the ones on Magic Online), listen to me: The fact that you opened Overrun doesn’t necessarily mean that you will play green. I’m telling you this because I have seen people destroying their own draft so many times already, just because they wanted to play the bomb they opened, no matter what. They don’t seem to care, if they are getting green passed or not. That’s why they end up having to play fillers like Mist Leopard, Runeclaw Bear or Bramble Creeper in order to get enough playables. Is that worth it? Well, of course not. Remember on what I said about the commons or uncommons that form your deck? Well, it’s the same here, which means you have to read the signals. See what’s coming and you will be fine. Your first two picks are probably going to be irrelevant or random many times anyway.. That’s probably the most important thing in this format, and even if it seems not too easy to master, trust me, it’s the only key to the format.
The key to almost every format is to be flexible, stay open, see what is really coming and pick the good cards in those colours.
I hope this article will help you improve your experience with the format, and good luck if you are also going to Prague. The Blackborder.com team, including Nico Bohny, Andreas Ganz and me, will also be there, trying to fight big Dragons, dodging Earthquakes and hopefully winning some extra Pro Points, so do not hesitate to stop by and say hi, or if you are not attending GP Prague, you can also join us on Facebook!
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Practice Sealed Pool
Though before ending this weeks column, I want to show you a practice M10 sealed pool. I invite you to have a look at the pool and then build a 40 card sealed deck and post it in the Blackborder deck section. The best builds will be awarded 250 Blackborder points! In my next article, I will discuss the pool and show you how I would have built the deck.
This M10 sealed pool forms part of Joel Calafells' latest feature article "Feature Sight: Preparing for GP Prague".
I invite you to have a look at the pool and then build a 40 card sealed
deck and post it in the Blackborder deck section. The best
builds will be awarded 250 Blackborder points! In my next article,
I will discuss the pool and show you how I would have built the deck.
With GP Prague looming on the horizon, Blackborder resident level 6 Pro Player Joel Calafell provides you with all the insider knowledge you need in order to master M10 limited!
| Colors |
|---|
| Artifact | 3 |
|---|
| Black | 13 |
|---|
| Blue | 14 |
|---|
| Green | 17 |
|---|
| Land | 1 |
|---|
| Red | 22 |
|---|
| White | 12 |
|---|
| Converted Mana Cost |
|---|
| 1 | 17 |
|---|
| 2 | 15 |
|---|
| 3 | 24 |
|---|
| 4 | 10 |
|---|
| 5 | 14 |
|---|
| 7 | 1 |
|---|
| Type |
|---|
| Artifact | 3 |
|---|
| Creature | 45 |
|---|
| Enchantment | 7 |
|---|
| Instant | 14 |
|---|
| Land | 1 |
|---|
| Sorcery | 12 |
|---|
Make sure to visit daily in order not
to miss anything and invite your friends to join the rapidly growing
interactive Magic the Gathering portal that Blackborder.com is!
Have fun and see you next week!
Joel Calafell
Bonus Section
Top 5 worst cards I have lost to on Magic Online with M10
This category includes all the cards I have lost to, including games with mulligans, manascrew, manaflood or just stupid plays of my own. I am sure it’s hard to do better than this! :-)
#2 Angel’s Mercy
Top 5 best combos I have won with in M10 limited
But what about the best combos in M10? This is the list of combos I won with that I liked the most! Obviously we can't argue about number 1 :-).
Black
Blue
Green
Red
White
Email this page
2 Canyon Minotaur
1 Dragon Whelp
2 Fiery Hellhound
1 Goblin Artillery
1 Magma Phoenix
1 Pyroclasm
1 Stone Giant
1 Acidic Slime
1 Awakener Druid
1 Centaur Courser
2 Giant Growth
1 Giant Spider
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Protean Hydra
1 Runeclaw Bears
2 Stampeding Rhino
1 Rod of Ruin
1 Whispersilk Cloak
1 Gargoyle Castle
7 Forest
9 Mountain
Solid deck, a little shaky mana base due the high number of three and four drops requiring double red, but should have a decent mid to late game.
1 Panic attack
previous deck was missing one card, added this for punch through power. Or could be easily swapped with Windstorm to account for weakness against fliers
Now I expect your next article will be about why you went 1-3 drop in Prague in such a skill-intensive format?
Honestly, while you give some good (if not exactly groundbreaking) advice, I'm really annoyed about all this "it's not luck, it's skill" crap. Yes, skill is still a factor. Yes, it is sometimes not the best solution to go for the biggest bomb. But overall, the claim that Sealed is not a lot more about luck than draft, and that especially M10 Sealed is not absolutely horribly swingy, is just a lie. You don't just need the bombs, you need them in the right colors which can support them. That's not making it much better.
The pool strongly points towards R/G. With very little in terms of removal or defense against fliers I leaned heavily towards aggro. I cut rod of ruin for that reason. Othwerise I found it pretty straight forward. I wanted to get either panic attack or trumpet blast into the deck to be able to push the damage through. Panic attack seemed to have better synergy with the whelp and the hellhound even if trumpet blast probably wouldn't been nice with the rhinos. There's very little in terms of turn 2 drops so the otherwise weak bears had to make an appearance. Hopefully the llanowar elves will let us skip ahead to the 3-mana drop as often as possible. If even that's not exactly going to happen all too often considering the 3 double red spells in the 3 mana slot. Gargoyle castle is alright. I still think it's overrated and it's weaker in this deck than usual. A 6 mana 3/4 flier that dies to excommunicate and unsummon is nothing to cheer loudly about, especially not in this deck. But it's not terrible and can stay. The protean hydra+phoenix/pyroclasm combo is great and will probably win us lots of games, particularly when we've got a cloak in the pile as well. Lava axe, even if the writer thinks it blows, is as far as I'm concerned underrated and will be a nice addition to our deck. I'm not terribly concered with our deck's top heavy mana curve. I think our pyroclasm, artillery and phoenix will be able to stabilize the table if our opponent gets off to a fast start. With that said, here's my deck:
Creatures (14)
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Runeclaw Bears
1 Centaur douser
1 Awakener Druid
1 Goblin artilley
2 Fiery Hellhound
1 Dragon whelp
1 Canyon minotaur
1 Stone Giant
1 Giant Spider
1 Maga Phoenix
1 Acidic Slime
1 Protean Hydra
Other Spells (9)
2 Panic Attack
1 Lava Axe
1 Howl of the Night Pack
1 Pyroclasm
1 Whispersilk cloak
1 Oakenform
2 Giant Growth
Lands (17)
1 Gargoyle Castle
8 Mountain
8 Forest
platinumn angel and indestuctability is a great combo
i would do: 2 Blinding Mage 1 Griffin Sentinel 1 Rhox Pikemaster 2 Silvercoat Lion 2 Stormfront Pegasus 1 Acidic Slime 1 Awakener Druid 1 Centaur Courser 2 Giant Growth 1 Giant Spider 1 Howl of the Night Pack 1 Llanowar Elves 1 Oakenform 1 Protean Hydra 1 Runeclaw Bears 2 Stampeding Rhino 1 Rod of Ruin 1 Whispersilk Cloak
1 Gargoyle Castle 10 forest 6 plains
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