On this episode of The Mana Pool, we decided to practice what we preach. Last time, we gave you the basics on Sealed. For this episode, we wanted to show you those basics in action. To do this, we've done two things. First, I opened a Sealed pool of cards (a Shadowmoor Tournament Pack and two Eventide Booster Packs) and copied down the contents. I then sent the list to Dirk, Mike, Brian, and myself. Each of us had the following assignment: Build a Sealed Deck out of this pool, write it down, and be prepared to discuss. Amazingly, all four of us did this assignment, and we discussed our four very different decks. Just as a quick preview, there was a black/green deck, a green/white deck, a green/red deck, and a black/white deck. So not only have we talked about building a Sealed deck, but we have shown that there is no absolutely “right” way to build one out of a given pool. You can find the entire Sealed pool and our decklists here:

http://themanapool.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=366568

And you'd think that would have been a good episode, right? Wrong! That wasn't enough for you, our dear listeners. We had to take it a step further. Not only did we build 4 different decks before we recorded, but we also decided to build another one from an entirely different Sealed pool live on the air! I opened up the cards at the beginning of the episode, and during the discussions of the individual decks, I was sorting and typing up this new list. It went out to the dorks, and we went through the entire process of building a deck out of it. There's much discussion, disagreement, explanation, reasoning, despair, and ultimately, harmony. You can find the entire pool and the final decklist in the same post as before, but here's the link again:

http://themanapool.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=366568

Hopefully you found this educational, or enlightening, or at least entertaining. Let us know what you thought, whether you do it on the forums, in the Facebook group, or just in an email, so we'll know if we should do something like this in the future.

Forum thread for this episode: http://cardshark.freeforums.org/episode-41-back-to-basics-the-sealed-deck-process-in-action-t209.html
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Note:  If you'd rather read this in a more familiar fashion, you can find it in a *.doc file located here:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/themanapool/Sealed_Pools_and_Decks.doc

For Episode 41, I opened a Sealed pool of cards, a Shadowmoor Tournament Pack and two Eventide Booster Packs. Each host dork took this Sealed pool and made a Sealed deck. Here is the original card pool.

Land:

Madblind Mountain (U)

Sunken Ruins (R)

White:

Kithkin Shielddare

Kithkin Zealot

Last Breath

Recumbent Bliss

Suture Spirit (U)

Windbrisk Raptor (R)

Blue:

Banishing Knack

Briarberry Cohort

Dream Thief

Ghastly Discovery

Oona's Grace

Prismwake Merrow

Put Away

Black:

Ashling, the Extinguisher (R)

Crowd of Cinders (U)

Disturbing Plot

Gloomlance

Merrow Bonegnawer

Rite of Consumption

Smoldering Butcher

Splitting Headache

Red:

Blookmark Mentor (U)

Bloodshed Fever

Hotheaded Giant

Inescapable Brute

Puncture Bolt

Smash to Smithereens

Green:

Bloom Tender (R)

Devoted Druid

Gleeful Sabotage

Nurturer Initiate

Phosphorescent Feast (U)

Tower Above (U)

Wickerbough Elder

Wildslayer Elves

Artifact:

Antler Skulkin

Chainbreaker

Hoof Skulkin

Lurebound Scarecrow (U)

Shell Skulkin

Black/White Hybrid:

Beckon Apparition

Bloodied Ghost (U)

Edge of the Divinity

Nightsky Mimic

Unmake

Red/White Hybrid:

Duergar Assailant

Duergar Hedge-Mage (U)

Fire at Will

Blue/White Hybrid:

Aethertow

Enchanted Evening (R)

Thoughtweft Gambit (U)

Turn to Mist

Green/White Hybrid:

Barkshell Blessing

Elvish Hexhunter

Safehold Elite

Safewright Quest

Black/Green Hybrid:

Quillspike (U)

Stalker Hag (U)

Blue/Black Hybrid:

Merrow Grimeblotter (U)

Blue/Green Hybrid:

Favor of the Overbeing

Grazing Kelpie

Shorecrasher Mimic

Slippery Bogle

Red/Green Hybrid:

Boggart Ram-Gang (U)

Loamdragger Giant

Morselhoarder

Mudbrawler Raiders

Tattermunge Duo

Tattermunge Witch (U)

Red/Black Hybrid:

Emberstrike Duo

Sootwalkers

Torrent of Souls (U)

Tyrannize (R)

And here are the four decks that came from this endeavor. Note the differences and, even though they're different colors, note the similarities.

Brian's Sealed Deck, by converted mana cost

1 – Merrow Bonegnawer, Nurturer Initiate, Elvish Hexhunter

2 – Bloom Tender, Devoted Druid, Safehold Elite, Disturbing Plot, Gleeful Sabotage, Rite of Consumption

3 – Quillspike, Stalker Hag, Hoof Skulkin, Tower Above, Unmake

4 – Ashling the Extinguisher, Crowd of Cinders, Soldering Butcher, Wickerbough Elder, Wildslayer Elves

5 – Gloomlance, Torrent of Souls

6 – Morselhoarder

7 – Loamdragger Giant

Land:

10x Forest

7x Swamp

Dirk’s Sealed Deck, by color

Lands

9 Plains

7 Forests

Green

Bloom Tender

Tower Above

Wickerbough Elder

Wildslayer Elves

White

Kithkin Shielddare

Last Breath

Recumbent Bliss

Suture Spirit

Windbrisk Raptor

White/Black

Bloodied Ghost

Edge of the Divinity

Unmake

White/Red

Duergar Hedge-Mage

Fire at Will

White/Blue

Æthertow

Turn to Mist

White/Green

Safehold Elite

Safewright Quest

Green/Black

Stalker Hag

Green/Red

Boggart Ram-Gang

Loamdragger Giant

Morselhoarder

Green/Blue

Favor of the Overbeing

Slippery Bogle

Mike's Sealed Deck, by color

Red:

Bloodmark Mentor

Puncture Bolt

Green:

Bloom Tender

Devoted Druid

Gleeful Sabotage

Nurturer Initiate

Tower Above

Wickerbough Elder

Wildslayer Elves

Artifact:

Chainbreaker

Hoof Skulkin

Lurebound Scarecrow

Red/White Hybrid:

Duergar Assailant

Green/White Hybrid:

Barkshell Blessing

Elvish Hexhunter

Safehold Elite

Black/Green Hybrid:

Quillspike

Blue/Green Hybrid:

Grazing Kelpie

Red/Green Hybrid:

Boggart Ram-Gang

Loamdragger Giant

Morselhoarder

Mudbrawler Raiders

Tattermunge Duo

Tattermunge Witch

Red/Black Hybrid:

Sootwalkers

Land:

11 Forest

6 Mountain

Chewie's Sealed Deck, by card type

Creatures

Elvish Hexhunter

Kithkin Zealot

Suture Spirit

Safehold Elite

Nightsky Mimic

Devoted Druid

Quillspike

Bloodied Ghost

Duergar Hedge-Mage

Stalker Hag

Crowd of Cinders

Sootwalkers

Ashling, the Extinguisher

Smoldering Butcher

Windbrisk Raptor

Spells

Safewright Quest

Barkshell Blessing

Beckon Apparition

Last Breath

Fire at Will

Unmake

Recumbent Bliss

Aethertow

Gloomlance

Thoughtweft Gambit

Land

8 Plains

6 Swamp

3 Forest

As a second exercise for this episode, I opened another Sealed pool, again a Shadowmoor Tournament Pack and two Eventide Booster Packs, and we constructed a deck live on the air. Here is that pool.

White

Recumbent Bliss

Cenn's Enlistment

Light from Within

Flickerwisp

Woeleecher

Safehold Sentry

Blue

Consign to Dream

Banishing Knack

Wilderness Hypnotist

Deepchannel Mentor

Faerie Swarm

Put Away

Parapet Watchers

Briarberry Cohort

Black

Corrupt

Blowfly Infestation

Polluted Bonds

Soul Reap

Merrow Bonegnawer

Creakwood Ghoul

Raven's Crime

Smolder Initiate

Aphotic Wisps

Sickle Ripper

Disturbing Plot

Red

Flame Jab

Duergar Cave-Guard

Hotheaded Giant

Smash to Smithereens

Rustrazor Butcher

Blistering Dieflyn

Boggart Arsonists

Green

Savage Conception

Wickerbough Elder

Witherscale Wurm

Drove of Elves

Gloomwidow

Nurturer Initiate

Presence of Gond

White/Blue

Godhead of Awe

Aethertow

Turn to Mist

Blue/Black

River's Grasp

Memory Sluice

Black/Red

Spiteflame Witch

Cultbrand Cinder

Red/Green

Firespout

Loamdragger Giant

Giantbaiting

Mudbrawler Raiders

Morselhoarder

Green/White

Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers

Elvish Hexhunter

Safewright Quest

Safehold Elite

Barkshell Blessing

White/Black

Nip Gwyllion

Unmake

Edge of Divinity

Blue/Red

Noggle Bridgebreaker

Noggle Bandit

Stream Hopper

Mindwrack Liege

Noggle Hedge-Mage

Black/Green

Rendclaw Trow

Green/Blue

Slippery Bogle

Grazing Kelpie

Shorecrasher Mimic

Selkie Hedge-Mage

Artifact

Hook Skulkin

Fang Skulkin

Scrapbasket

Pili-Pala

Wingrattle Scarecrow

Land

Moonring Island

And finally, here is the complete decklist, after much discussion, discord, and decision. Sorted by card type then mana cost.

Land

9 Island

6 Forest

3 Mountain

Creatures

Stream Hopper

Elvish Hexhunter

Pili-Pala

Briarberry Cohort

Safehold Elite

Selkie Hedge-Mage

Noggle Hedge-Mage

Rendclaw Trow

Noggle Bandit

Faerie Swarm

Wickerbough Elder

Noggle Bridgebreaker

Godhead of Awe

Deepchannel Mentor

Mindwrack Liege

Noncreatures

Banishing Knack

Barkshell Blessing

Flame Jab

Consign to Dream

Giantbaiting

Presence of Gond

Firespout

Aethertow

Savage Conception