Ahhh, the Team season.

For me, there is little more that I enjoy doing more than playing the Magical cards. And while playing the Magical cards, there is little more that I (or as it seems, most red-blooded American players) enjoy more than drafting. Screw the Constructed formats and their obnoxious playtesting. There is nothing more than we as a country like doing than cracking a few packs and passing some cards left. And then right. And then, because it was so much fun the first time, left one more time. This by the way is why we as a country now suck.

So now comes the Team season in all of its glory. Where not only can you draft, you can draft with two of your closest friends (or barns). And not only do you get to draft, because it's Team Rochester draft, so you get to draft for a very very long time. It's the greatest thing in the world. And all you have to do to participate is not suck at Team Sealed. This is where I come in.

Team Sealed Strategy
Let's be honest, the heart of the Team PTQ season is Team Sealed. I have yet to see in all my years a Rochester Draft at a Team PTQ, or even at a Team GPT. That's because many teams at such events are mercenary teams put together by players with no intention of qualifying, but who just want to win some cash and product. Other teams are there for the fun of competition and playing with their buddies. I have played on teams that had little to no chance of qualifying, and even if the stars somehow aligned on that particular day, scheduling conflicts would never allow that team to make the trip to the Pro Tour.

So for those of you looking to have fun, make money, or get to that final draft on this final weekend of the Team PTQ season, here are six important rules of Team Sealed that you would do well to remember, with some examples and a little personal experience to back it up.

1. Be Friends
Something so obvious, though it can't be stated enough. It is important to be friends with your teammates. There are many times that your patience will be tested in team play. Deck construction can be a very harrowing process, and being friends is important to surviving such an ordeal and getting through it with healthy decks and healthy teammates.

Constructing three decks for three people out of five colors is an equation that wants more math than I like producing. Pairing off colors often results in discussions or arguments in which people get their feelings hurt - which is no good - or decks get hurt, because people are too afraid of offending someone to speak their mind. Being able to say "You're crazy" and "This card should only be used on the possibility that you feel you need something stiffer to wipe yourself with double-ply Charmin" to someone while still being able to go grab a drink after a rousing 0-2 drop is a good thing that should not be overlooked.

Yet another reason why friendship is vital to Team play is the fact that you will make a mistake. You will. I guarantee it. It will cause you to lose a game that you should otherwise win. And, most likely, your teammates will notice that mistake. They are going to screw up too. So the best way to make it through 7 rounds is to be able to understand that and not hold it against that person. Being able to get the mistakes out there, acknowledged and get past them so that your minds are fully on the next round is critical. My team has seen teammates attack with a Callous Deceiver for no good reason known to man, miss blocking Jade Idol with Kitsune Riftwalker (yes folks, it becomes a spirit), discard a one-mana artifact at the end of the turn with a solitary (untapped) land on the board for no reason, and just plain not attack when there was absolutely no reason not to. Stuff happens.

2. Make equal decks
There is a flawed notion that there should be a strong deck given to the weakest player and two weak decks split between the other two players. This is a theory that has been taken far too seriously by some teams, to which point they make a god deck and figure it will always win and that one of the two others should win and that's the match. Well guess what, no matter how strong you make a deck, there will be a stronger deck that comes over and smacks it around. Or, it will just get mana screwed/flooded.

The trick to Team Sealed is to make the three decks as close as possible to equal strength without going beyond two colors in each deck. The best way to do this is to figure out what your three main colors (they will usually be the basis of your deck) and what they need. Then look at the remaining two to figure out where they go, or if you should split on of your strong colors to boost the needs two weaker colors.

For example, looking at the second set of decklists for our team (actually the first decks that we played that day, poor overworked coverage team), Red was strongest color. We could have paired it with Black to make a superdeck, but we chose to split the strength of Red to offset the weaknesses of two other solid colors. The Honden of Infinite Rage found its home alongside its brother, Honden of Infinite Cleansing, which would have been correct even if the White honden was not present as White was far more controlling than Blue and could make much better use of the Red honden. The White deck also got Ryusei, a large flying win condition that it could better protect with Blessed Breath, Indomitable Will, and Eight-And-A-Half-Tails. The deck is completed with a Yamabushi's Flame, Brothers Yamazaki, and Yamabushi's Storm, which is a fine card against Blue and Black decks and the one-toughness evasion creatures that they depend on.

The Blue-based deck needed more, so it was given some Red ground creatures to hold the fort while it's fliers are free to attack every turn. Ember-Fist Zubera is a perfect chump blocker that the Blue deck needs that combines well with Blood Rites, which works well as a finishing tool against decks that are outraced by the fliers and a great answer to the bane of the Blue deck, Frostwielder. The Earthshaker is a great addition to any Blue deck, and the Uncontrollable Anger is a nice overcosted trick or just a plain Giant Strength to speed one of your fliers along.

Even among friends, Magic players can have problems creating three equal decks, which it is why it is so important that you...

3. Don't assign decks before constructing
This point should really be 2a or something, but how picky are we going to get? Assigning decks can lead to people not wanting to give up cards in a deck that they would play to strengthen a deck that more likely would need it. When people expect to play a deck, they care slightly less about what is included in another deck. Nobody wants to be the reason their team loses, and it is much easier to see all of the holes in the deck that you are expecting to get and thus concentrating on the most. If Aaron or I had been assigned the decks beforehand, we might have differed in opinion on how to split the Yamabushi's Flame, instead of deciding that two needed to be in the Blue deck, and the White deck could make better use of one than the Blue deck of a third. If you have to put the decks face down and assign them randomly for this to work, do it.

Mike's Black/Red deck in the first set of decklists was by far our strongest deck of the day. Double Glacial Ray, Kumano and Blind with Anger will do that. If these had been assigned to each player, it is easy to believe that we might have split the elimination colors. The problem was that the Green was so shallow that it questionable whether it was anything more than a Kodama's Reach and two Sakura-Tribe Elders. Which brings us to the next rule...

4. Don't write off colors
Lest you think we played with nothing but triple Flame and Kumano all day, here is an example where juggling the small cards in your worst color can have the biggest payoff. In the second set of decks (again, listed as deck 1) our Green was horrible, and our Red and Black were very good, the White was solid, the Blue was average at best. The problem was in trying to make three good decks. Green didn't have a creature base to complement Red or Black. The Blue deck needed some slots filled, but adding Red left too playable cards unused (though double Glacial Ray combined with double Consuming Vortex peaked my interest. Jilt kicked anyone? God, how I miss Invasion block). Black was no good with the Blue, as it had nothing but one-toughness creatures, and I am not a big fan of Hideous Laughter in the Black/Blue deck. White has some solid stuff and two Timmy cards.

So what do we do? We split our worst color of course. Putting the Elders and Kodama's Reach allowed Aaron to ramp up to the Myojin Of Cleansing Fire and Konda in a reasonable amount of time. The Order of the Sacred Bells flushed out the middle of his curve, Commune with Nature, a favorite of his, allowed him to find the necessary drop missing in his hand, or just one of the legends. The blue deck was going to have to win on tempo, and at least had some fliers. The role of chump blockers were played admirably by Dripping-Tongue Zubera (he blocks twice!), Humble Budoka (his "ability" allows you to not have to worry about your opponent removing your crucial blocker to get lethal damage by) and the snakes, Orochi Ranger and Matsu-Tribe Decoy. The little removal to be had was 2 Consuming Vortex and the underrated Soratami Mirror-Mage. I was never overly impressed with Hankyu, and Kodama's Might was best used to keep a flier alive.

What can be learned from this? While it seems obvious now, the builds were not easy to come by, and making sure your team looks at every color combination to find the ones that fit can be very rewarding. Though I would not recommend trying to stretch your worst color into all three decks. And while we have yet to play one color in all three main decks, we have had backup plans in which we might see Swamps or Mountains in front of all three players during later stages in a match. This is because it is very important to remember that while in deck construction...

5. Do not ignore the sideboard
This can be more difficult than it seams. Trying to build three good decks and register them in the time allotted is hard enough, taking time to work out sideboard options is often an afterthought for most teams. Whether it is a making sure the decks sharing colors have access to sideboard help in situations that deck most needs them, or having a creature deck ready to sideboard in for your ill-advised Dampen.dec, sideboarding can make all the difference in the close matches that you need to win to reach that final draft. Our green decks are the most likely to see a third color in the sideboard, a Pull Under here, a Sokenzan Bruiser and Yamabushi's Storm there.

All of this brings us to our last important piece of advice...

6. Respect your differences
Perhaps this has become more apparent with my current team. Mike and Aaron are two of the more...adventurous... players in the state of Michigan. They both play with cards that at any time may inspire dry heaves from more traditional players (like myself). It is not odd to see Aaron with a slightly crazed smile on his face during our weekly drafts at edt's (I've been told that "the first Tempting Wurm is bad, but the next three are really good!"). Mike just firmly believes that 15 land is too much for most decks, though you can get to add a few more if you throw him a Sensei's Divining Top. Needless to say this drove me crazy our first few events, and our results were less than desired. Since then, we have come to understand that Mike will always be mana flooded if he plays 17 lands, and Aaron can usually win with whatever strange card he decides he needs to play. They have also since stop thrusting Wirefly Hives at me while insisting how much better they are than Clockwork Condors.

During the last stages of deck construction, we identify what each deck is (Control, Aggro, Just plain strange) and figure out who would be best off playing them. In this block, Mike has been the man with the Swamps, Aaron with the Plains, and I have been the playing the Islands. After the decks have found their owners, we discuss with the team how we individually would change the last few cards to fit our own style or preference of play. And almost every time, these changes make the final deck. This all ties back to the first rule, team with your friends, since you will have a better understanding of why they are (or are not) successful.

With that I have nothing to leave you with but a wish for good luck this weekend. And if you are (un)lucky enough to make that final table with another team that wants to qualify and you need some Team Rochester advice, check with team ;B s members John Pelcak and Gadiel Szleifer, or Tim Aten if he ever gets around to writing again.

Peter Jesuale
pdj1002@yahoo.com