Final Fantasy Sealed

A break from regularly scheduled brewing

I am having strong results in Final Fantasy Sealed. I ended up doing 6 runs of the Arena Direct event this past weekend and had a 79% winrate overall. Here is what has been working for me.

Note: Brewing posts will be coming, I have solid Random Encounter and Kefka decks I have been working on.

Colors

My brother and I played 9 runs of the Arena Direct between us. We trophied 4 of them. Every trophy deck was WB (some with small splashes). All the non-trophy decks were with other colors besides one that was also WB and a 6-2.

So WB had a 80% trophy rate for us and an 87% winrate across 39 games.

What makes WB so good?

1. This is a format with a lot of bombs that can run away with the game. This means you want a lot of:

   1. Unconditional removal and WB has the best

   2. A solid curve that applies pressure, so you can end the game and not give your opponent all the time to deploy their bombs. WB pools have some of the best pressuring curves.

2. The Job Select equipments are particularly strong in Sealed. The slightly slower speed gives more time for reequipping to matter. White has the best Job Select cards and Black has ok Job Select cards, but it also has cards that want to sacrifice artifacts, which take advantage of Job Select.

3. Life Gain matters more than normal because of the Summons. If you can keep your life total high, then you can just let the Summon attack you and it will eventually kill itself. If you have gained some life, suddenly a card like Fat Chocobo is five mana for a 2/2. That’s how you win. WB as usual are the two best colors for life gain.

4. In a format where bombs matter, WB have more soft bombs at uncommon than the other colors (see next section for specifics)

5. There is enough fixing in the towns, artifacts, and black to enable a small splash for bombs or premium removal (see next section for specifics).

Going in I thought Green based decks, especially Sultai good stuff, were going to be where it was at, but they have underperformed for me. I would end up being on the backfoot as my opponents constantly reequip their creatures turning each into a must answer threat. You want to be the player with a continuous stream of must answer threats.

Where I disagree with 17Lands Card Ratings

As usual 17Lands.com card data is an outstanding resource. And overall the winrate numbers there line up with my experience. Below are spots I disagree that I think are meaningful. Note: I use the Premier Draft data since the Sealed Data feels like it has small sample size issues

The Crystal’s Chosen (56.0%)

Particularly if you have multiple copies in your pool (since they self-synergize) this is a bomb you can get at uncommon. It is not as strong as the best rares and mythics, but it gets the job done. It lines up particularly well, because most of the other bombs in the format are answered with one for one creature removal, so your opponents are not building their decks to handle this sudden surge of wide power.

This is one where likely the marginaly slower speed of sealed and more removal lets it shine, especially if you build with it as a top end in mind.

Summon: Anima (53.0%)

This was shocking to me how low the winrate was. I was expecting it to be around 60, given how every time it sees play by me or my opponent, it warps the game around it. This is another one of those soft bombs you get at uncommon for playing Black.

This is likely another where it is significantly better in Sealed thanks to the slightly slower speed and its final chapter pairing well with large amount of removal you tend to run in sealed.

Adelbert Steiner (58.4%) and Aerith Gainsborough (56.0%)

These both have somewhat similar play patterns and have both felt like close to bombs to me. The difference is right that Adelbert is the better of the two and another one of the uncommon bombs you get to run in WB.

Midgar, City of Mako (53.6%)

This plays like a three mana draw 3 mid to late game, that early game ensures you do not miss land drops. That is an amazing card. How this is in the low 50’s is shocking to me.

Basically all of the Job Selects

Initially I was surprised at how high they were and now I think they should all be a bit higher. But special shout out to Dragoon’s Lance, which is already at a high 61.4% in Draft and is likely even stronger in Sealed.

Sidequest: Hunt the Mark (60.3%) and Namazu Trader (54.9%)

Small splashes for bombs or removal is more common in Sealed. Both of these cards provide that fixing while allowing you to curve and without relying on Green for fixing.

Here is an example from my final trophy deck:

I was able to splash for two bombs of different colors in Jenova and Kuja without needing to run any forests or mountains thanks to the Namazu Trader.

Syr Konrad, the Grim (55.3%)

This is a five mana card, that has warped the game around it when I have seen it in play or played it. Again the slightly slower speed of Sealed and ability for the ground to get gummed up later game, makes the reach this provides huge. This would be a draw for me into black, which is not what a 55.3% screams to me.

Resentful Revelation (58.4%) and Hecteyes (56.7%)

These are properly rated, but I was initially surprised how high they were. But then I started playing with them and they are in fact amazing.

Gameplay

This is a very gameplay skill intensive format. Many of my wins were in part from out playing my opponent. 1/3 of my losses were from poor play on my end.

The specific things that make it skill intensive:

• Summons- Unlike normal creatures these are easy to “waste” playing them on curve. They make all sorts of questions around sequencing and how aggressive to be more complicated.

• Equipment and Flashback- Equipment and Flashback (to a lesser degree) means you will have tons to do with your mana and options. Equipment often means weighing the trade off between equipping to enable an attack versus developing your board.

Wrap

Besides 17Lands data I did not consume any Limited content, so I am not sure how widely held any of these opinions are.

It has been a very fun format with a lot of interesting deckbuilding and interesting gameplay.

And epic moments, like when my opponent played Summon: Primal Odin cleared my final creature and likely thought they had the win. And then I topdecked my 9th land to finally Summon: Bahamut and takeover the game.