Limited Musings - How to make the best of a weak Pool

As I write this I'm currently playing an M13 Sealed release event. I am right now 2-0 and haven't lost a game. My pool is, shall we say not very good. I've had much better and much worse. This pool however is an excellent tool to show how one can make the best of a bad pool and still win packs.

I ended up going 3-1 with this pool, not too bad.

So heres my pool and final deck selection.

Yes, it is indeed 3 colors with only a single mana fixer. But theres one important thing about my build that many people miss. Only 3 cards have double mana requirements, and all are late game finisher style cards. Everything else is either a beater, card draw or conditional removal with only 1 colored mana requirement.

My curve is low and on the aggressive side. Aven Squire, Attended Knight, Knight of Glory, Arbor Elf, and Elvish Visionaries are my early plays. If I happen to have a Rancor I quickly can go on the offensive. My late game includes the 3 best cards in my pool for these colors. Jace, Memory Adept, Serra Angel (still good after all these years) and Serra Avenger.

So how did I come up with this monstrosity? First I sorted by Rarity as do many of us. I was stunned at the number of red and black rares, 5 in total. Firewing Phoenix and Krenko, Mob Boss are both bombs in their own right. The Xathrid Gorgon can be slow but insane once on the board, and the Shimian Specter is just flat out insane if left unchecked. Who needs random discard when you can get a targeted discard! Thoughsieze every turn? I don't see why not!

So red black it is, or is it... Here are the only playable support cards for red:

1. Mark of Mutiny (Not very good in this limited for some reason, haven't figured out why)
2. Reckless Brute (He turns into a 3 mana removal spell, not bad, but not what I want to be doing)
3. Canyon Minotaur (I'd rather be playing something else, but he'll do)
4. 2x Chandra's Fury (Axing questions is always fun, but without heavy creature support to back it up...)
5. Fire Elemental (Haven't been impressed by the Firey Lady in M13 sealed. Nice, but quickly outclassed)
6. Mindclaw Shaman (Hes insane, probably the best red guy we have.. but living to 5 mana seems tough)

and black's support cards:

• Zombie Goliath (Meh, if I play him its because I have no other choices)
• Bloodhunter Bat (Solid card, I really like this guy in limited)
• Cower in Fear (Its ok... can set up some sick turns but you want to be trading, we dont have enough dudes)
• Harbor Bandit (Hes great!)
• 2x Walking Corpse (A bear is a bear)
• 3x Mind Rot (Could be worth looking into...)
• 2x Tormented Soul (Pretty good, no exalted though)

Neither supports card selection is any good. The concept of 3x Mind rot, Jace, 2x Archaeomancers and the Specter calls to me, and in hind sight I should of run it just to see. But its not where this pool wants to go.

Taking a look at Green we have the following:

• Acidic Slime (always good)
• Primal Huntbeast (Hes pretty sick, especially with rancor. A+ dude in my book)
• 2x Elvish Visionary (replaces itself, what more could you ask)
• Rancor (By far the best card for limited I've found. Its soooooo good)
• Arbor Elf (Mana accel is good)
• 2x Bond Beetle (It may look like a 1/2 for 1, but in this format +1/+1 is pretty huge during creature math)
• 3x Titanic Growth (wow...)
• 2x Plummet (Maindeckable in this format, the times I have I haven't been unhappy)
• Fungal Sprouting (Solid token generation)
• Roaring Primadox (Combos really well with Visionary/Beetle/Slime, and a 4/4 for 4? Wow!)
• Vastwood Gorger (A wurm is a wurm. Almost always playable)

Green is really good, except it lacks one thing. A solid late game. Its early game is really good. Rancor, Primay Huntbeast, Visionaries, Elf, Beetle, but Primadox and Gorger aren't what I consider a solid late game. They can be killed quite easily, and not just from removal spells. Speaking of removal spells, Green has no prey upons, a key component to a green heavy M13 limited deck. Its going in for sure, just needs support.

Looking at Blue:

• Jace, Memory Adept (Best card in limited)
• Wind Drake (Always a solid flyer )
• Unsummon (This format is about big dudes. Unsummon is effectively a timewalk here.)
• Welkin Tern (Hes so good...)
• 2x Archaeomancer (insane in the right deck)

Blue is weak, very weak. But it has Jace, and Jace wins games.

White is pretty solid.

Serra Angel (Still good)
Prized Elephant (Newcomer, 4/4 for 4 and might trample? Sounds good)
Griffin Protector (Evasive beater that can get bigger? Awesome)
2x Divine Verdict (Removal is removal)
Captain's Call (3 1/1s are really good at stalling the game. Always a fan of token makers)
Crusader of Odric (works with Captain's Call, and Attended Knight really well)
Attended Knight (2/2 first strike WITH A GUY? Sold.)
Serra Avenger (Might not look like much, but the fact she lets you play multiple threats on turn 4 is great)
Knight of Glory (Relevant protection, and exalted, what more to ask for? Ok first strike but thats pushing it)
Aven Squire (Was great in Shards, Won me an old extended match and is great now.)
Ajani's Sunstriker (Not the best, but Lifelink is very relevant in this limited format)

So this is what I'm left with. My bombs are in black and red but with no support. Neither pairs well with Blue/White/Green. Green is by far my best color for limited, but lacks a late game. Blue just has Jace and some utility, and white is insane, but without utility.

My first build was White/Blue. Since I don't have very many cards in the two colors I ended up with bad cards, like Divine Favor, Guardian Lions, and Downpour main deck. Looking at it, it didn't seem good against aggressive decks. (RG is possibly the strongest color combination in the format, and it hits hard and fast)

I took a look at White/Black, trying to design some sort of small aggro/hand control deck. It suffered from late game problems since I didn't have much beyond Serra Angel to finish them off. I tried splashing both green and blue, but with so many double mana requirements it just wasn't feasible.  Also it had a low creature count. I've noticed in my years of playing that in Limited, more so sealed than draft, a high creature count tends to win more games, regardless of the format. Sealed tends to have stalled out games (most formats). If you can play more theats than your opponent, you'll end up winning. Its just a thing I noticed.

Next I looked at Green/White. It looks good, but ended up filling it out with some janky cards to make 23 playables. It would of been my build if I was playing at a GP, since consistency always wins over power in those sorts of events. Plus with 3 Titanic Growths I can play the, turn all my dudes sideways into your big guys game. Since this is a release event and I'm still figuring out what can work in the format, I passed for something a little bit more powerful.

Enter Blue/White/Green, aka Bant. It has all my powerful cards. Jace, Angel, Knight, Rancor, Visionaries, Acidic Slime. Instead of telling you how I built it, I'll go with what I cut and why.

Ajani's Sunstriker -  First problem is hes WW to cast. This is a 3 color deck.
Archaeomancer -  Not enough things to recur. I don't want to cast a blank 1/2 for 4 mana.
Downpour - Its good, but I'm not aggressive enough in these colors to make full use of it.
Roaring Primadox - I have game ending 4 drops. He doesn't work well when I'm trying to drop Jace or Angel on turn 5.
Bond Beetle - I sided these and Primadox in one game, but without one, the other becomes weaker.
Fungal Sprouting - I have a better token generator in Captain's call. I've been bit too many times in M13 to always run it.
Plummet - Yes its main deckable, but I have too much going on for conditional removal in this deck.
Vastwood Gorger - If i needed another playable or stronger late game, hes my #1 pick. As such with what I have, hes not going to fit my deck. Since I have 3 colors, mana is an issue, so I'll almost always have things I can't play dude to mana requirements. I don't need yet another thing sitting there waiting for land.

Things I shouldn't of done:
The Ring. I love these things. Theyre all good. This deck is white creature heavy, so it made sense at the time. In actual play however, It always turned into a Plummet or Titanic Growth.

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If I had opened this in a GP, i'd be pissed. Since I'm playing online in a release event, I decided to play with it and see what's possible in this format. I learned a few things:

• People still autoscoop to Jace.
• With this much removal in the format, lots of dudes is still good. (Every color has at least 1 this format)
• Being color screwed still sucks, but much more manageable in M13.
• Unsummon is SO GOOD when they enchant their elderscale wurm 4 times in one turn.
• I wish I had done the Blue/Black Hand Control deck instead.

Overall, a great experience for M13.