Over the last two weeks, I’ve played and watched a lot of Theros Block Limited. I had a particularly nice view from the coverage booth in Vienna last weekend, where Aniol Alcaraz took down the tournament by being the only white drafter in the Top 8 after the Born of the Gods booster. Congratulations to him!
Today, I have two topics. First, I’ll go over an example Sealed pool to illustrate my process for building a Sealed deck. Afterwards, I’ll cover a number of interesting card interactions that could help you win a Theros Block Limited PTQ.
Sealed Deck Challenge
On Friday night in Vienna, I did a Sealed Deck challenge with fellow commentator Marijn Lybaert. We both built a Sealed deck and subsequently battled each other for glory.
After opening my pool, I roughly sorted all the single-colored cards from best to worst—best cards on top; worst cards on the bottom. This gives a quick and easy overview of the strength of each color.
Looking at the top three cards of each color, white stands out as the worst—Battlewise Valor in the top three is a telling sign. However, all the other colors seem reasonable. Red (headlined by Forgestoker Dragon, Fall of the Hammer, and Akroan Conscriptor) might be the best, but blue, black, and green are not far behind.
Looking at the depth of all the colors, white again stands out as the worst —it only contains 10 playables, and that already generously includes Hold at Bay and Great Hart. All the other colors, however, contain at least 12 playables, which means that any two-color combination without white should have enough cards to make a reasonable deck.
After that, it’s a good idea to take a look at the artifacts and gold cards:
Reap What Is Sown is a great card, but not enough to draw me into the lackluster white, so I’m ditching that color for now.
Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver and Kiora’s Follower are both great cards, and they could guide me towards blue/black or green/blue.
Opaline Unicorn might allow a splash, but the Unicorn is a bit slow, and I have a strong preference for consistent two-color decks over powerful three-color decks, especially in this Limited format. The games tend to be fast and tempo-based, and you often don’t have the luxury to wait for your splash color. I value mana consistency very highly, so if I can assemble 23 playables in two colors, then I’m not going to bother with a third. There are exceptions to this rule (having scry lands to fix mana is a big one) but they don’t apply to this pool.
Given that we cut white and that we want a two-color deck, there are six two-color combinations remaining. Let’s take a look at all of them and evaluate their power, mana curve, creature base, and synergy. (The mana bases would run 17 lands for all six decks.)
Power: Blue/black offers the excellent Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver. However, Marshmist Titan, Sphinx’s Disciple, Coastline Chimera, and Weight of the Underworld are far from exciting, so the overall power of this deck is low.
Mana curve: Looks good; we have 6 cards that can be played by turn two (the five creatures plus Bile Blight) and only 2 cards that cost five or more mana. If anything, more 5+ drops or late-game mana sinks would be nice to mitigate mana flood.
Creature base: This deck is low on creatures (only 14) and most of them only have 1 power. This means that it will be difficult to close out the game or to punish the opponent for a mana stumble—a huge downside.
Synergy: This deck has the opposite of synergy, as Felhide Brawler and Vaporkin can’t defend Ashiok. Turn 1 Vortex Elemental followed by turn 2 Bile Blight is also an impossibility.
Overall, I’m not thrilled about this build.
Power: Red/black offers a bunch of removal and contains the best cards in the pool: Forgestoker Dragon, Nighthowler, Bile Blight, and Fall of the Hammer. Moreover, there are no truly bad cards in this build.
Mana curve: Could be better; we only have 4 cards that can be played by turn two and as many as 6 cards that cost five or more mana. This means that we could stumble early on and/or be stuck with a glut of expensive cards in hand.
Creature base: This deck has a sufficient amount of creatures, even ones with more than 1 power. Much better than the black/blue build.
Synergy: There are some cute Minotaur synergies that make Felhide Brawler a lot better.
While this build is powerful, it looks slow and clunky.
Power: Black/green has mostly reasonable cards (the worst one might be Setessan Starbreaker) but lacks outstanding cards.
Mana curve: Fine, but we had to include two unimpressive Satyr Hedonist to have enough 2-drops. And there are hardly any 5+ mana cards or late-game mana sinks that can allow us to claw back from a mana flood.
Creature base: Somewhat bland.
Synergy: Satyr Wayfinder and Nighthowler work together nicely. However, a turn-2 Bile Blight followed by a turn-3 Setessan Oathsworn is impossible, which is a downside.
Overall, I don’t like this build very much.
Power: Red/green seems more powerful than black/green, as the best red cards are slightly stronger than the best black cards.
Mana curve: Problematic for the same reasons as the red/black deck (too few early drops and too many expensive drops) but mitigated by the inclusion of Karametra’s Acolyte and Satyr Hedonist. Those green acceleration cards can help out with monstrosity activations as well.
Creature base: It’s fine; there is certainly enough power to go around.
Synergy: Satyr Hedonist into a turn-3 Nemesis of Mortals is quite strong. Akroan Conscriptor also likes the green combat tricks.
This build looks fine, albeit a bit slow.
Power: Blue/red is generally horrible, but the card quality is fine here.
Mana curve: Seems fine.
Creature base: Seems fine.
Synergy: Akroan Crusader with Ordeal of Thassa is nice. Nevertheless, blue flyers and red creatures don’t work well together, and Retraction Helix is not at its best when paired with red removal spells.
This deck doesn’t seem horrible, and there are no immediate glaring flaws, but my intuition is shouting at me that this deck doesn’t have a good game plan.
Power: This actually looks good. Kiora’s Follower is a great card, especially when it can ramp into a third-turn Pheres-Band Tromper.
Mana curve: Excellent. Creatures at all slots in the curve.
Creature base: Acceptable.
Synergy: This deck can abuse the heroic synergies the best: it has most of the heroic creatures in the pool, as well as most of the targeting effects.
I like this one!
After looking at 6 different decks, we have a difficult decision. Many of these builds are reasonable, but in the end I went for the green/blue deck. This was also the most popular choice of the people in the audience for the Sealed Deck challenge.
I chose Crypsis (which can trigger the heroic creatures), Coastline Chimera (plays well with the green pump spells and offers some additional evasion), and Vulpine Goliath (which gives some oomph for the late game) as my 21st-23rd cards for this deck. Cards that were relegated to the sideboard included Divination (which doesn’t fit in the tempo game that this deck aims to play), Curse of the Swine (which cannot profitably target Hero of Leina Tower or Setessan Oathsworn), Satyr Hedonist (as there are already enough early drops), and Karametra’s Acolyte (as there is not enough to ramp into).
After adding 9 Forests and 8 Islands (favoring green due to the double-green Setessan Oathsworn) I shuffled up and sat down for a match against Marijn. The games were close and could’ve gone either way based on our draws, but in the end, Marijn’s aggressive red/white deck came out ahead. Nevertheless, I have no regrets—I liked the deck I built from my Sealed pool, and I felt I systematically evaluated all the options in a structured way.
Interesting Cards in Theros Block Limited
I’m going to go over a few cards to share various things I learned recently, as well as general thoughts on certain cards.
Leonin Snarecaster usually taps an opposing creature, but it can tap itself, too. This can be useful when playing against Asphyxiate or Noble Quarry.
If you’re in dire need of a removal spell for your opponent’s tapped creature, then you can always untap it with Savage Surge and subsequently Asphyxiate it.
Not the most efficient removal card, but it combos quite nicely with Pharika’s Mender and Griffin Dreamfinder. And if everything else fails, you can always put it on your own Floodtide Serpent so that it can attack.
Suppose that your opponent (who is at 5 life with no cards in hand) has Setessan Battle Priest, Nessian Courser, and Elite Skirmisher in play. Your board is Daxos of Meletis and Heliod’s Emissary. You have Voyage’s End in hand and plenty of mana. What’s the play?
If you bounce any of your opponent’s creatures, you won’t be able to attack for lethal. Instead, bounce your own Heliod’s Emissary! Bestow it onto Daxos of Meletis, attack, tap down the 1/3, and win the game.
There are not many shuffle effects in the format, but if you are ever able to Griptide an opposing creature in response to a Burnished Hart or Ordeal of Nylea activation, then you’ve effectively created a hard removal spell. While that requires your opponent to use a shuffle effect at a suitable time, you help out with Unravel the Aether or Vortex Elemental. I should also note that Siren of the Silent Song is another great combo with Griptide.
In recent Grand Prix finals, we’ve seen these slow mana fixers in two-color decks: Grand Prix Montreal runner-up Dave Shiels ran Unknown Shores in his blue/white deck, while Grand Prix Vienna champion Aniol Alcaraz played Traveler’s Amulet in his blue/white deck. This sparked a debate on how to evaluate these cards in two-color decks.
This may be kind of a controversial opinion, but I like them, especially when I have double-colored early drops in both of my colors. Although I prefer not to end up with a deck that includes both Swordwise Centaur and Two-Headed Cerberus, sometimes the draft doesn’t provide any other options, and then I’d still like to be able to cast my spells.
In Constructed, most decks run 15-18 colored sources for double-colored cards like Hero’s Downfall and Dissolve, and my mathematical analysis also indicated that those numbers are a good guideline. In Limited, this corresponds to 10-12 colored sources. In other words, a 9-8 mana base won’t cut it: you’ll be unable to cast your Swordwise Centaur or Two-Headed Cerberus in more than 10% of the games, and you may also have to mulligan more frequently.
In my opinion, the increase in mana consistency outweighs the downside of having a slower draw. Unknown Shores and Traveler’s Amulet will slow you down more than Temple of Triumph or Terramorphic Expanse, but an 8-8-1 mana base is a substantial improvement over a 9-8 mana base. Better to cast Swordwise Centaur on turn 3 than to not cast it at all. Besides that, Unknown Shores also allows you to activate off-color abilities, such as Deathbellow Raider in a white/red deck or Akroan Phalanx in a blue/white deck. I’m a fan.
I generally play first in this tempo-based format. You cannot afford to be a turn behind on the board when everyone is making bigger monsters with bestow, ordeals, monstrous, and so on.
However, if I have a three-color deck and/or a deck with sweepers like Anger of the Gods or Drown in Sorrow, then I may wish to draw first. It can be so backbreaking to sweep a two-drop and a three-drop on turn three. Accordingly, if my opponent chooses to play first, then I will be more inclined to play around those sweepers.
Don’t bestow these on the same creature. It doesn’t work.
Sometimes you have these slow decks with lots of card draw, like a deck with multiple Oracle’s Insight. Such decks sometimes run the risk of getting decked. However, if you have Vortex Elemental (and maybe a Dissolve to protect it) then you can make sure that you will never be decked!
Remember that Retraction Helix can bounce any nonland permanent, not just creatures. Sometimes bouncing a bestowed aura of an artifact can help quite a bit. Also remember that you can bounce your own permanents to double up on enters-the-battlefield triggers. This is especially useful with Gray Merchant of Asphodel.
Also, if your opponent plays Asphyxiate on one of your creatures, don’t just use Retraction Helix to bounce it in the same way as with Voyage’s End. Instead, tap your creature to bounce something else, and the Asphyxiate will be countered upon resolution because the creature is tapped.
Finally, once you have drafted multiple Retraction Helix, Breaching Hippocamp shoots up in value. Be sure to keep an eye out for that synergy.
Stop trying to mill your opponents! It’s okay if you have Phenax in your deck or if your opponent is drawing tons of cards with Oracle’s Insight or something like that, but usually the game won’t come down to decking. More importantly, you don’t want to turn on opposing an Pharika’s Mender, Odunos River Trawler, Griffin Dreamfinder, or Nemesis of Mortals. It’s almost always better to just mill yourself.
Closing Out…
That’s all I have for you today. Next weekend I’ll be in Beijing to compete in the Grand Prix and to see the Great Wall. If you’re there as well, then don’t hesitate to say hi!























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