Let's Talk About Limited

We still haven't heard anything about the next round of Regionals, but with most expecting them to be before Through the Dark Portal comes out, I wouldn't be surprised to see them be Sealed Deck since we've already played one round of Regionals with the same card pool that will be available to us I don't foresee us playing Constructed again. I could be very wrong. There's a first time for everything after all. With that in mind, let's start taking a look at World of Warcraft Limited Play and how to build a sealed deck.

It's all about the allies silly.

With a limited card pool to choose from, and only 30 cards in a deck, allies are generally going to be your main win conditions. I think right around half of your deck needs to be allies, but a up to 20 allies doesn't seem bad either. I think 13 is probably a bare minimum, and it that case you better have at least one weapon and some really good abilities. You're going to want a decent mana curve here with the bulk of your allies being in the 2-4 drop range, generally only playing one drops if they have relevent out of combat abilities like Mezzik. I think the only one-drops worth including for their combat abilities are Apprentice Teep (Elusive is good in Limited) and Bloodclaw. You would like to have 2-3 allies in the 5+ cost range as these are generally your heavy hitters. However, only play your best 2 or 3 big allies as any more will just sit around while you die waiting to get to 5 resources.

Okay, I've got my allies, what now?

The next thing to look at is going to be if you got any equipment, especially a good weapon. Good equipment will win games in Sealed Deck play. There are just so few ways to get rid of weapons and they are re-usable sources of damage. The biggest advantage here is the ability to trade your health for your opponent's allies. This is a point that needs to be made. A lot of players view their health as a horde of treasure that they don't want to let one piece of get away, when in reality your health is another resource that when managed properly can win you games you wouldn't otherwise have won. Sealed deck, even more than Constructed, generally boils down to card advantage. Which player makes the most favorable trades. Using a Krol Blade and some health points to eliminate three or four of your opponent's allies is one of the best trades you will be able to make in this game.

What about abilities and quests?

First let's talk about abilities. You're going to want to separate your abilities by class. One recommendation I will make is if one of your factions of allies is significantly weaker than the other, remove any abilities that could only be played by a hero from that faction. For example, if your Alliance is weak, just remove all your Paladin abilities and don't thnk twice about it. It would be very rare to find a set of abilities that is worth playing at the sacrifice of a better ally selection. After you've separated your abilities by class, start looking at how many playable cards each class offers. If you have good equipment, go to the classes that can use that weapon first and see what kind of depth those classes offer you. The best weapons are almost exclusively better than the best abilities, so playing a slightly weaker group of abilities is worth it to get a Krol Blade in your deck. If none of the classes on your equipment give you good options, you will probably have to go somewhere else. You're going to be faced with a tough decision now. Do I play weaker abilities so I can get the weapon, or do I drop the weapon in favor of better abilities. This is really going to be determined by how big the gap is between the power of the abilities. If you have extremely powerful Mage abilities and are pretty weak in say Hunter for your weapon, you should go with the Mage as the added power of the abilities will make up for the lack of a weapon. I feel like this is the best place to talk about one of the biggest mistakes most players make in building their sealed decks. They let the power of their best cards weigh too heavily on their decisions in card selection. The best way to think about this is if you were to rate your cards based on power from 1 to 30. Most players are focused too much on 1-10 when in fact the best decks are the ones that have the best cards from 15-30. Most players will allow the power of their best cards to cloud their judgement regarding the overall power of their deck. They will make bad decisions based on the assumption that they HAVE to play their best individual cards. I'm not saying to not play your best cards. In fact, you should look for any way at all to get your best cards into your deck. But sometimes you have to realize that to play your best cards you will sometimes have to play a weaker deck than you could have built. Let's look at a quick example. Lady Jaina Proudmoore is one of the biggest bombs you can hope to open in a Sealed Pack environment. Many players would see Jaina and immediately make up their mind that they are playing Alliance. But if the rest of your Alliance is weak while your Horde allies are better but less spectacular, you should actually play Horde here as a deck that is solid top to bottom is better than a top heavy deck. Now in this same scenario if your decision is close regarding Horde or Alliance, obviously Jaina would push you into Alliance. I realize this was a tough lesson to learn, but it was necessary. Now we can move on.

What should I look for in abilities?

The first thing you'll be looking for are removal abilities. Anything that can trade at least 1-for-1 for an ally. Trading an ability for an ally straight up is not technically card advantage. But you can usually look at it as a 1.5 for 1. Trading a non-permanent for a permanent is in your favor despite not actually gaining any cards in the process. The fact that you remove a re-usable source of damage with a card that has a one-shot effect is virtual card advantage. Removing their allies with abilities also opens the door for your allies to live on and keep attacking. After removal you will probably want to look for card drawing. Most classes have something that will allow them to draw cards. After that you will be looking for anything that might generate card advantage. Call the Spirit is a good card as it essentially is an extra ally. Hopefully at this point you havc between 22 and 25 playable cards and are ready to move on to quests.

Card advantage is king in limited, so good quests are at a premium. I think 6-8 is the right number here. If you have that many playable quests you should be in good shape. Kibler's is always good. Anything that explicitly draws cards is good. For Zapped Giants to be more likely to hit than miss you need at least 10 abilities.

Well, there's a place to start your Sealed Deck building. The best way to get better is obviously to practice and play. One thing that will really help is to get other people's opinions and ask why they would have made the choices they did. On decisions where you would have made different choices explain why you did what you did and discuss that decision on the merits of both choices. The more input you get the more informed you will be the next time you build a Sealed Deck. This is one of the areas where having a good group of players whose opinion you value will go a long way in improving your own game.