Today’s weekly event at my LGS ended up being just me and one other person, so we decided to crack open some packs and play a few games of sealed as a send-off to Beyond the Gates.
The pool
Here are the first things I noticed about the pool I opened:
- Kojo & Booda are the strongest hero I have access to.
- Bravos offers a ton of strong 2 and 3-drops. Any deck I build will include Bravos.
- Muna offers some boost and anchor synergies, but no Teija or Arjun meant most of the cards wouldn’t be at their best.
- Yzmir has a couple of solid characters, but I need to work make the most of the Flamels: A Cappella Training (C) in Lyra and Beauty Sleep (C) in Muna motivate these two as support factions. (Also, four Kuwats is wild!)
- Ordis provides strong permanents but is lacking in characters.
- Sierra & Oddball could be viable thanks to the two Brassbug Hub (C)s and three Ordis Carrier (C)s. Her hero ability helps make up for the fact that Axiom and Ordis are light on characters. Brassbug Hive (C) and The Monolith, Ordis Bastion (C) are two strong 5-mana permanents.
I saw two reasonable routes:
- A Kojo & Booda good-stuff build with Bravos as a base and some combination of Lyra, Muna, and Yzmir as support. I think I like Yzmir to fill out playables and then splashing Lyra for a few strong cards.
- A Sierra & Oddball landmarks build with Bravos contributing the bulk of the characters and Axiom and Ordis contributing the 3+ mana permanents.
The deck
I ended up trying Sierra & Oddball. The deck has seven permanents to trigger her hero ability, five of which can be played on D1.
The deck is heavy on 3-drops, but this is slightly less of an issue since I have two copies of Brassbug Hub (C). A D1 Hub means I can spend 1 mana on D2 to create a Brassbug and the remaining 3 on a 3-cost character.
The win-conditions are The Monolith, Ordis Bastion (C), Brassbug Hive (C), and an endlessly replayable Athena (R). Open the Gates (C) and Mechanical Training (C) are questionable standalone includes, but they have a high ceiling when paired with the appropriate 5-mana landmark. The Monolith becomes even more compelling when you can play it while making a 3/3/3 Brassbug.
Two copies of Bravos Tracer can help make up for the tempo lost by setting up the permanents, and they play well with Helping Hand (C).
Physical Training (R) gets better since all of the 3-mana landmarks create a token at noon to guarantee a boost target.
Takeaways
Sierra pairs very well with Ordis due to how strong Ordis Carrier (C) and especially The Monolith, Ordis Bastion (C) are at common.
To my surprise, Sierra felt like a definite upgrade over Kojo due to this pool’s permanent support. I played enough permanents that I ended up triggering Sierra’s hero ability on average every other turn, frontloaded on the early turns. It mattered to be able to place the 2/2/2 in an expedition of my choice during the afternoon (as opposed to at noon).
I encountered more awkwardness playing around the landmark limit in draft than in constructed:
- When I already had two Ordis Carrier (C)s out, playing out a Brassbug Hive (C) wasn’t much of an upgrade.
- You can only have one token-generating permanent alongside The Monolith, Ordis Bastion (C).
- In every game, I overwrote the Brassbug Hub (C) with one counter unspent.
The games
My opponent built a Sigismar & Wingspan good-stuff deck out of Muna-Ordis-Yzmir. Their pool didn’t offer a ton of go-wide payoffs, but it did feature several efficient card-draw characters, an anchoring theme, and tempo finishers in the form of Beauty Sleep (C) and Small Step, Giant Leap (C).
Game 1 (W)
In the first game, Sierra’s hero ability let me trade on D1 while setting up an Ordis Carrier (C). The Frog Prince (R) helped me trade again on D2 while getting down a second Ordis Carrier.
Physical Training (R) played well with the Ordis Carriers; on D4, I was able to play Sun Wukong (R) hero-side, then boost the side my opponent didn’t commit to in order to guarantee a progression. It also helped me draw back up after playing my landmarks.
The Monolith, Ordis Bastion (C) came down on D5, generating a boosted Brassbug. Bravos Tracer (C) was instrumental in ensuring I could trade on the same day. I was able to close out the game on the following day thanks to The Monolith and regions that prevented my opponent’s Hathor (R) from blocking.
Game 2 (L)
I had the ideal start of Brassbug Hub (C) into Ordis Carrier (C).
My opponent exploited a window on D3 where I commited too hard to one side and played out an Inari (R), then anchored it with Meditation Training (R) while still trading. They were able to replay the Meditation Training (R) to get the at-noon draw a second turn in a row. They also anchored out an Aloe Vera (R) that turn for another anchored threat and more card advantage.
I was able to continue trading but only by forgoing Brassbug Hub usages in favor of slightly stronger plays from hand.
Nearing the end of the game, we were both 2 expeditions away from victory. I spent a Hub token, deployed a Brassbug Hive (C) for two Brassbugs, and played my Thoth (C). My opponent played both sides of a Beauty Sleep (C) to 1-0, then revealed the Small Step, Giant Leap (C) for the win.
Game 3 (W)
Once again, I started with Brassbug Hub (C) into Ordis Carrier (C). This traded on D1 as the second player, and the two 2/2/2 Brassbugs went 1-2 on D2.
Excellent regions for Bravos Pathfinder (C) had me postpone The Monolith for a play that could do better than 0-2. On D4, the 1/1/1 from the Ordis Carrier, the 2/2/2 from the Brassbug Hub and the 3/3/3 from Sierra’s hero ability ensured that I not only avoided the 0-2 on my setup turn but made my opponent work a bit just to trade.
With The Monolith online, I shut my opponent out when I spent my last mana on a surprise Helping Hand (C) to boost and remove fleeting from a Bravos Tracer (C).
Top-decking Open the Gates (C) for 8/8/8 worth of Ordis Recruits alongside my boosted Bravos Tracer meant my opponent had to bend over backwards just to block one side, playing an unanchored Aloe Vera (R) to go 0-1 and keep me at one expedition from victory.
After drawing, my hand on 8 mana was Athena (R) and Physical Training (R) with an Open the Gates (C) in reserve. I had the option to go to 9 by putting a card from hand into reserve. The problem was that my opponent would be the starting player, and sabotage would wreck me if I put a card into mana and drew poorly with the Physical Training. I ended up keeping both cards, playing as though I wouldn’t have the Open the Gates (C).
This ended up being the right play for a different reason: my opponent led with a Sticky Note Seals (C) to remove The Monolith, making a Open the Gates a much less appealing play. Funnily enough, Athena ended up being just a 3/4/4 since I no longer had two landmarks, but I played her alongside my boosted Ordis Recruit anyway.
My opponent went down to 2 mana to play The Council (C) facing her and a boosted Ordis Recruit. I targeted Athena for the Physical Training (R) rather than the Ordis Recruit; if my opponent had Beauty Sleep (C), they would still block me, and this plays around a potential Teamwork Training (C), the same reason I didn’t just pile both sides of the Physical Training on the Ordis Recruit.
My opponent didn’t have any removal, so I nabbed the single-side progression for the win.