We got our packs and swiftly opened them. Of course, the first thing anyone does when opening packs is look for the rare! I got a modest haul, including Treeborn Frog and Damage Condenser, which I really wanted after writing about it. Once the bling has been admired, though, it’s time to think about what you’re going to put in your deck. Technically, you could just gather up all of your cards, shuffle them together, and pronounce it done, but unless you got five absolutely golden packs, that’s a pretty bad way to build a Sealed deck.

Here are some good general guidelines that can help you build your own Sealed deck.

First, sort your cards into monsters, spells, and traps. Having them separated by types makes it a bit easier to manage the cards and choose what you want.

Next, you need to read the cards. I don’t mean skim them quickly—I mean really read them. This is Sealed Pack, not Booster Draft, so you’ve got time to read. Skimming the card text is a good way to make play errors or build decks that won’t work. Look at monster types, levels, ATK and DEF values, and read all the monster effects. Check to see if spells are quick-play or equip and if traps are continuous, because that can make a difference. You can always ask a judge if you’re unsure how a card works.

As you read the cards, make a separate pile for the cards that you just can’t use. There will be cards in many sets that won’t be useable in Sealed Pack, because they require cards from other sets in order to work. Other cards won’t be useable because you need other specific cards in that set to use them, and if you didn’t get the other cards, there’s no use putting the useless card in your deck. Set aside any cards that can’t be used. You don’t want to put any completely dead cards in your deck!

Now, you should be left with the useable cards, and remember that some of those cards will end up being more useable than others. You need at least 20 cards in your deck, and depending on how many cards got eliminated as unusable, you might not have as many first-rate cards as you might have hoped. The trick to building a good Sealed deck is to make the most of what you have. Approach it like a Constructed deck, as far as ratios, strategy, and utility go, and use what looks best. You need to narrow down this pile of 30–40 cards to the 20 or so that will make the best possible deck. But how?

The process I like to use works pretty well, and I think the easiest way to explain it will be to actually walk you through the process. I’m going to show you what I put in my deck and why, along with what I didn’t put in my deck, and why, including how I made those decisions.

I opened my packs, fondled my rares, sorted everything into piles, and looked over the cards. 45 beautiful, brand-new cards! And technically, I only needed to pick out 20 or so. I’ll just mention, to my shame, that I didn’t read one of them as carefully as I should have. You’ll hear more about that later. Anyway, I found several cards that I couldn’t use because they need cards from other sets, and so I set them aside.

2 Elemental Hero Heo Bubbleman: Can’t use it without Elemental Hero Bubbleman!

HHHHHhhhhhero Heart: No use without Elemental Heroes . . .

Cyclone Boomerang: Can’t use it without Elemental Hero Wildheart.

Trial of the Princesses: I need White Magician Pikeru and/or Ebon Magician Curran in order to use it.

Success Probability 0%: I considered the probability of an opponent with a Fusion deck to be, well, 0%. It was actually quite accurately named.

Then I set aside the cards I couldn’t use, because I didn’t have the combos.

2 Attack Reflector Unit: Alas, I pulled no Proto Cyber Dragons or Cyber Barrier Dragons.

Photon Generator Unit: No Proto Cyber Dragons, no Cyber Laser Dragons!

Phantasmal Martyrs: I didn’t have the Sacred Beasts, so it figured that my only ultimate rare would be one I couldn’t use!

I’m already down ten cards, leaving me 35 with which to build my deck. I looked through the cards again, sorting them into three different categories: “Absolutely Going in the Deck,” “Good Second-String,” and “Filling in the Gaps.”

The “Absolutely Going in the Deck” pile contained the following cards:

Treeborn Frog: You’ve got to have the Frog. I had several tribute monsters I wanted to use, and not a lot of spells and traps that were vital to my deck. Besides, I was going to need to tribute spells or traps for Anteatereatingant anyways, so odds were good I’d have a clear zone from time to time. Therefore, there was no reason not to have the Frog. It’s hip, it’s trendy, and it’s what people are wearing this season.

Anteatereatingant: First off, that picture is hysterical, and second, it’s a good solid beatstick in Sealed. The fact that it can be special summoned is a nice bonus, especially in a deck where I didn’t absolutely need the spells and traps I was including. Also, any kind of spell or trap removal shouldn’t be passed over lightly in sealed. There’s no Mystical Space Typhoon, no Dust Tornado, and no Mobius to clear out anything that’s giving you problems, so get what you can.

2 Sand Moth: It’s a fairly simple equation. 2000 DEF, plus Saber Beetle, plus Sealed Pack, equals a world of pain. You just don’t want to pass up a level 4 monster with that kind of DEF, whether you’re running tributes or not.

3 Saber Beetle: This Insect is just plain wrong! Now, when I originally looked at the card I just assumed it was a level 7 monster, because honestly! 2400 ATK with pierce damage? How is it allowed? It’s a good thing Sealed Pack duels are back up to 8000 life points, huh? There’s very little in the set in the set that can stop this thing. And it’s a common! (And Jason didn’t pull any! Bwahahahaha!)

2 Tenkabito Shien: It’s got decent ATK and DEF values, and the “not affected by trap cards” is a nice effect to have.

Machine King Prototype: 1600 is a decent ATK value in Sealed Pack. There’s nothing to be ashamed of there, Machine King Prototype. And if you go up against an opponent who put together some kind of Ancient Gear thing, the Prototype’s going to be even better.

Next To Be Lost: There were several cards in the game that benefit from having a copy of themselves in the graveyard, so this seemed pretty good. It’s also a good deck thinner, so I can get to those Saber Beetles faster.

Damage Condenser: I’ll be honest, I wanted to use it just because I wrote about it, so it was going in the deck no matter what. There were some small monsters going to be included out of necessity, and there’s always the possibility of taking a direct hit. There wasn’t any good reason I could see to leave it out. (I actually didn’t get to use it that much, because my opponents barely did any damage to my mighty army of Saber Beetles and Sand Moths. But when I did use it, it was great!)

The “Good Second-String” pile contained the following cards.

2 Grass Phantom: Its ATK is a little low, but not as low as some other monsters—plus it’s stackable in the graveyard, and I pulled more than one!

2 Beelze Frog: It’s kind of cute, and would make good company for Treeborn. Its 1200 ATK isn’t as low as some other monsters in the set, even though its effect is irrelevant in Sealed Pack. And I was a bit tired of looking at all those bugs.

Ancient Gear Cannon: The tribute effect isn’t bad, especially against an opponent who is disposed to linger, and it would add a boost to Machine King Prototype.

2 Generation Shift: This one was also good for deck thinning and graveyard stacking, but blowing one monster off the field isn’t always the best move to make.

Option Hunter: Can’t hurt, might help, and it usually did.

Full Salvo: Oh, why not? It can get stackers in the graveyard, finish off an opponent who’s hiding behind a wall, or do the last bit of damage to end the game if Saber Beetle and Anteatereatingant didn’t quite finish the job. Something that can do some burn damage isn’t a bad idea to have on your side, and it works as a tribute for Anteatereatingant that I won’t really miss.

And then, last but . . . well, yeah. Least. The “Filling in the Gaps” pile included the following cards:

Hero Kid: I only pulled one, and one Hero Kid is cute, but puny!

Parasitic Ticky: It’s fun to say “Parasitic Ticky,” but without tokens, it didn’t seem to have much of a point in my deck.

Silent Insect: There weren’t a whole lot of continuous spells or traps I was worried about, and there’s a reason why people say “squish you like a bug.”

D. D. Guide: I didn’t see any reason to put this in my deck. I saw a few people playing it, and it didn’t seem to be doing them much good.

Chain Thrasher: I only pulled one, and Grass Phantom had a higher DEF value, so poor Chain Thrasher got bumped down here in favor of a brace of nightmarish artichokes.

Ancient Gear Factory: I only got one Ancient Gear monster, so . . . not high on the playability list.

3 Magnet Circle LV2: With only one level 2 or lower Machine-type monster in my card pool, it wasn’t a top priority. (And I got three of these!)

Miracle Kids: Only one Hero Kid—enough said.

Super Junior Confrontation: This one was wacky enough to tempt me, but it looked like it might end up being a bit of a hassle.

Now I needed to decide what to use. You want to keep your deck as close to 20 cards as possible. People deck themselves a lot less frequently than you might think, and when you’re going to have to include some less-powerful cards out of necessity, you want to keep your numbers down so you don’t run into too many of them.

I like to go with a ratio of about fourteen to fifteen monsters to five or six spells or traps, depending, of course, on what I pull. If all the spells and traps are bad, I’d rather go with more monsters. Put in monsters with the highest ATK and DEF values that you can manage, include some with good effects, and if you’ve got good tribute monsters, don’t leave them out either. A really good tribute monster can be game breaking (cough, Saber Beetle, cough). You also have to think in terms of the cards that are in the set. Remember, you’re not going to be facing the usual combos and cards you’ll find in Constructed. That can give you a lot of freedom in deckbuilding.

I usually pick out the monsters first, beginning with the ones I absolutely want to play, then I move on to the spells and traps. There weren’t any spells I felt would make the deck, but a few of the traps sounded good to me. Try not to rely solely on combos to win, unless you’ve got a lot of copies of the cards you’ll need—and remember, you’re not bound by the three-card maximum. You can use as many copies of something that you pull from your packs. Choose some good, high-utility cards.

After that, you count. This is often the point you discover that you’ve only got about ten to fifteen cards that you actually want to play. Now comes the fun! You need to fill in the gaps with the cards that didn’t make the initial cut. Look them over, and see what will work best with what you have. You may find that you have to make a few tweaks to the cards you’d picked beforehand. Sealed deckbuilding is a challenge, all right, but it’s so much fun, and not to mention, good mental exercise.

This is what I ended up building.

THEM!

Monsters: 14

1 Treeborn Frog

2 Sand Moth

2 Saber Beetle

1 Anteatereatingant

2 Tenkabito Shien

1 Machine King Prototype

2 Grass Phantom

1 Ancient Gear Cannon

1 Beelze Frog

1 Hero Kid

Spells (I just felt like I had to include at least one spell): 1

1 Magnet Circle LV 2

Traps (I didn’t mind if they weren’t all useful all the time, because I did need some to tribute for Anteatereatingant): 6

1 Damage Condenser

1 Next To Be Lost

1 Option Hunter

1 Generation Shift

1 Miracle Kids

1 Full Salvo

Basically, this was a beatdown deck. There weren’t a lot of combos, other than some graveyard stacking and that Hero Kid/Miracle Kid thing. Once I got at least one Saber Beetle and the Anteatereatingant out, it was all over but the crying. It’s probable that the open play area decks weren’t as formidable as the tournament decks, but overall there just wasn’t much that could stop this.

I like to hit fast and hard, so the Beetles were perfect for my play style. 2400 ATK and piercing damage? It’s like a dream come true! A lot of players made the mistake of setting monsters with a higher ATK than DEF in defense just out of habit, but that would have only delayed the inevitable. It was a rare game that I didn’t have at least one Saber Beetle and the Anteatereatingant out in four or so turns, so not even a Sand Moth slowed me down for long. It was the Saber Beetles that really won the games for me. They just tore through everything and none of my opponents could gain enough time to come back against them. There was just very little that anyone could do under the full onslaught of killer bugs.

The deck went undefeated, and I wish in retrospect that I’d entered the tournament!

Looking back, I should have definitely put in the third Saber Beetle. If I’d looked at the card carefully when I was building the deck, I’d have seen it only needed one tribute. Assuming that it needed two was what held me back. And I have no excuse, after lecturing you all on why it’s important to read your cards. What do we get when we don’t get what we want? Let’s all say it together—“Experience!” You can be sure I’ll pay closer attention next time.

It was fun to attend a Sneak Preview event and play rather than judge, but I’m not ready to retire from judging quite yet. I did appreciate the chance to stretch some rather cramped deckbuilding and play skills, though, and I must say I’m glad I didn’t disgrace myself since rather a lot of people recognized me and came up to say hi. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on some more Shadow of Infinity cards, and experimenting with some more refined builds using some the cards that I liked so much from the event. Insect Skill Drain, perhaps? Hmm . . .