This was my son's pool from last night. I think it had potential but it was hard to pick colors. He ended up going RG which had some powerful options but I think meshed really poorly (he basically went 0-3-1).

There are pretty decent reasons to play red, green, blue and black, and even white has something going for it.

blue
1 x stormtide leviathan
1 x glacial crasher
1 x nimbus of the isles
2 x aeronaut tinkerer
1 x frost lynx
1 x divination
1 x turn to frog
1 x peel from reality
2 x invisibility
1 x statute of denial
2 x negate
1 x hydrosurge
1 x mind sculpt

green
1 x hornet queen
1 x soul of zendikar
1 x siege wurm
1 x roaring primadox
1 x living totem
1 x paragon of eternal wilds
1 x undergrowth scavenger
1 x elvish mystic
1 x hunter’s ambush
1 x verdant haven
1 x nissa’s expedition
1 x ranger’s guile
1 x plummet
1 x naturalize
1 x titanic growth
1 x gather courage

red
1 x forge devil
2 x torch fiend
1 x borderland maruader
1 x generator servant
1 x rummaging goblin
2 x krenkos’ enforcer
1 x goblin roughrider
1 x goblin rabblemaster
1 x belligerent sliver
1 x scrapyard mongrel
1 x clear a path
2 x crowd’s favor
1 x heat ray
1 x lightning strike
1 x blast fire bolt

Black
1 x child of night
1 x black cat
1 x necromancer’s assistant
1 x athrid slyblade
1 x paragon of open graves
1 x gravedigger
1 x accursed spirit
1 x blood host
1 x shadowcloak vampire
1 x necromancer’s stockpile
1 x festergloom
1 x feat on the fallen
1 x unmake the graves
1 x stain the mind
3 x flesh to dust
1 x endless obedience

White
1 x soulmender
1 x sungrace pegasus
1 x dauntless river marshal
1 x kinbaile skirmisher
2 x heliod’s pilgrim
1 x paragon of new dawns
2 x tireless missionaries
1 x constricting sliver
1 x raise the alarm
1 x solemn offering
1 x marked by honor
1 x congregate
2 x pillar of light
1 x meditation puzzle
1 x sanctified charge

colorless
1 x evolving wilds
1 x darksteel citadel
1 x tormod’s crypt
2 x ornithopter
1 x profane memento
1 x bronze sable
1 x tyrant’s machine
1 x staff of the death magus

I can't build pools based off of text lists, but G/R looks like the right way to go with this, red for the early drops, Green for the late game fat. Black has some really solid stuff though, so I would consider Red/Black or Green/Black depending on the curve.

I would have gone for the triple Flesh to Dust alone. So sick.

^Probably this.

Though the red removal options aren't half bad either.

G/B gives you a 1-drop, two 2-drops, and 2 3-drops, and none of them have more than 1 toughness. I don't think G/B would be able to stabilize.

Ah, that's right. Red has quite a few decent low-drops so GR was probably right.

GB ramp:

1 x Elvish Mystic
1 x Black Cat
1 x Child of Night
1 x Necromancer's Assistant
1 x Accursed Spirit
1 x Gravedigger
1 x Living Totem
1 x Paragon of Open Graves
1 x Paragon of Eternal Wilds
1 x Roaring Primadox
1 x Xathrid Slyblade
1 x Shadowcloak Vampire
1 x Hornet Queen
1 x Soul of Zendikar
1 x Siege Wurm

1 x Gather Courage
1 x Verdant Haven
1 x Nissa's Expedition
3 x Flesh to Dust
1 x Endless Obedience

8 x Swamp
9 x Forest
1 x Evolving Wilds

Sideboard
1 x Undergrowth Scavenger
1 x Ranger’s Guile
1 x Naturalize
1 x Plummet
1 x Festergloom
1 x Feast on the Fallen
1 x Heat Ray
1 x Lightning Strike
1 x bronze sable
1 x staff of the death magus


This is an 18 lands, go first, never mulligan TWoo deck. You have some early drops to slow things down, and three ramp spells to get you to four mana or above. Expedition also thins your deck, which is a good thing to have in a ramp deck. Primadox has three straight combos going (Totem, Gravedigger, Queen), should be great in this deck. Also, as you say, many decks just lose to a 4/4.

If you ever run into aggro, you put in the Staff and the Sable, dropping a Flesh to Dust and Probably Obedience. It's also quite easy to splash in the Bolt and/or the Ray. Festergloom is your friend against swarms and aggro.

If the set was in MtGO, I'd probably change a card or two, but this is definitely the deck I'd build. Great power, two bombs, removal, card advantage, it has everything.

He went something like this:

green
1 x hornet queen
1 x soul of zendikar
1 x siege wurm
1 x living totem
1 x paragon of eternal wilds
1 x elvish mystic
1 x foundry street denizen
1 x borderland maruader
1 x generator servant
1 x rummaging goblin
2 x krenkos’ enforcer
1 x goblin roughrider
1 x goblin rabblemaster
1 x belligerent sliver
1 x crowd’s favor
1 x heat ray
1 x lightning strike
1 x blast fire bolt
1 x nissa’s expedition
1 x titanic growth
1 x tyrant’s machine
1 x radiant fountain
9 x forest
8 x mountain


I seem to have forgotten the fountain and the denizen from the pool... but it's not like they are super key

I was thinking someething like this actually:

1 x child of night
1 x necromancer’s assistant
1 x athrid slyblade
1 x paragon of open graves
1 x gravedigger
1 x accursed spirit
1 x shadowcloak vampire
1 x foundry street denizen
1 x borderland maruader
1 x generator servant
1 x rummaging goblin
2 x krenkos’ enforcer
1 x goblin roughrider
1 x goblin rabblemaster
1 x belligerent sliver
1 x crowd’s favor
1 x heat ray
1 x lightning strike
3 x flesh to dust
1 x endless obedience


But seems like trouble without a finisher.

I really want to play green with that pool. Really. Ideally, you build all three color combos (plenty of time to do that online), and then switch to the faster one if you really have to.

And Zen, you're using the wrong apostrophe(?), so card links don't work.

I probably would have gone black/green with a splash of red;

GREEN
1 x hornet queen
1 x siege wurm
1 x soul of zendikar
1 x Nissa's expedition
1 x living totem
1 x paragon of eternal wilds
1 x verdant haven

BLACK
1 x endless obedience
3 x flesh to dust
1 x shadowcloak vampire
1 x accursed spirit
1 x gravedigger
1 x paragon of open graves
1 x Necromancer's assistant
1 x xathrid slyblade
1 x child of night

RED
1 x heat ray
1 x lightning strike

COLORLESS
1 x bronze sable

LANDS
1 x Evolving Wilds
2 x Mountain
8 x Swamp
8 x Forest

The idea of this deck is to put down some early ramp, and find whatever colour you're missing with Verdant Haven, Evolving Wilds, or Nissa's Expedition. Then once you hit 6 mana you should be golden with some high-octane cards and a strong removal suite. All your low-cost creatures also help you live long enough to reach 6 mana (bronze sable is useful when mana's tight, necromancer's assistant has a strong 3-power, and child of night will help pad your life). There's so many high-cost cards here that I think 19 lands actually makes sense. You absolutely MUST reach at least 4 mana every single game.

Play all the lifegain/combat tricks/weenies in white so you can play all the finishers in green. Something like:

1 x Elvish Mystic
1 x Soul Mender
1 x Sungrace Pegasus
1 x Kinsbaile Skirmisher
1 x Dauntless River Marshal
1 x Paragon of Eternal Wilds
1 x Paragon of New Dawns
1 x Roaring Primadox
1 x Living Totem
1 x Tireless Missionaries
1 x Soul of Zendikar
1 x Siege Wurm
1 x Constricting Sliver
1 x Hornet Queen

1 x Titanic Growth
1 x Ranger's Guile
1 x Gather Courage
1 x Raise the Alarm
1 x Congregate
1 x Sanctified Charge
2 x Pillar of Light

9 x Forest
9 x Plains


Bonus points for using the primadox pump via kinsbaile, gain life via missionaries, or make counters with your totem, or remove better targets with the sliver, or make a bunch of tokens with the queen.

I don't think this is an obvious deck, but it's something unconventional, and it is able to do things on every turn, which is basically the way to win sealed events.

Mm. I could see dropping a plains for a Nissa's Expedition too.

After a few more games with this set, I agree you cannot leave a 6/6 or 5/5 trample out of your deck.

I like both the BGr (although 12 creatures?) and the WG is intriguiging. Missing Ajani's Pridemate tho.

Ajani's Pridemate would be a sweet card with the WG build... definitely had someone go soul mender T1 into pridemate T2 and clean my clock at the prerelease.

I think the issue people have with lifegain and just completely disregarding it is that it doesn't provide inevitability. But in this deck, with bombs like the soul, the queen, and the wurm, not to mention the synergies between the roaring primadox and some of the etb creatures, I don't think prolonging the game is a bad thing, because this specific deck represents inevitability except against super bomby decks because the top end of your curve is such quality. Congregate is also a card people do not play around, so it can be effective in games where people think they're going to break parity by creating a massive all-in attack. Fog, sometimes, win games.

Anyway, definitely a tough sealed pool, and I definitely wouldn't have built this WG deck, I only did it to try something out.