So, let's talk about splashing, and not the Magikarp variety, but the Magic kind! In Sealed, you're generally going to open powerful cards in every color, but you can't really play them all (unless this is DGR Sealed), so often times you're going to have some strong cards just sitting in your sideboard. You can open something like Elspeth, Sun's Champion but have white completely unplayable and have to play blue/black or blue/red, etc. Is it worth adding a few white sources and jamming that Elspeth, or is it better to just leave it in the sideboard? It all depends really. You have to evaluate your final build and ask yourself if you can still be efficient with your mana while adding power to your deck. So, what are the disadvantages of splashing?

By splashing, you may reduce the consistency of your manabase. You can draw either the card or the source, but not both. (Note: drawing just the source is better than just drawing the card) Mulligans are more frequent.

When you add other sources of mana into your deck, the likelihood of drawing your base colors as needed goes down. You could have a hand with cards that have GG in their casting cost and be screwed when you open with Forest, Swamp, Swamp, Plains. In effect, that splash source will act as a colorless mana source, which can be a problem if you have a lot of spells with heavy color requirements. Assuming your color requirements aren't that intensive, what happens when you draw one but not both needed cards (source and spell)? If you just draw the spell, you're stuck with a dead card in your hand, and if you open with it, it's almost like you mulliganed already. If you just draw the source, you're not in the same problem as before, but it can let your opponent know to play around a certain card or two (most splash cards are powerful commons/uncommons). Lastly, there are hands that you have to throw back because you have your splash cards in your 7 but no source, or you have the sources but they don't let you cast your other spells. So, given the downsides, what are the advantages of splashing?

Raises the power level of your deck Give you outs to bombs (if splashing removal) or bombs themselves (if splashing creatures)

Those are probably the 2 best reasons to splash a color. Generally, when you're splashing you want access to a powerful card for some reason, whether it's a Divine Verdict to kill a bomb, or to splash a Xenagos in your UG deck, or an Ashiok in your BW deck. They make your deck stronger because instead of just drawing an average card, you have a chance to draw a powerful card that may change the flow of the game. Now if you have a powerful deck already, there's really no need to splash (although you may splash in postboard games if needed), you should only splash if necessary. Just a helpful tip on splashing: make sure you have enough sources for your splash card(s), and that you're not splashing for 1/2/3 drops, as you're unlikely to have the mana to cast them right away. (This can be ignored if it's a 1/2/3 CMC card that wouldn't cast on curve). With that said, let's crack some packs!

Deckbuilding

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Draft

Round 1

Round 2

Conclusion

Like I said in the video, I believe our opponent should've forgotten he had Stymied Hopes Game 1 Round 1 and done other things instead, or just cash it in as a 2 mana scry 1. There is no advantage to holding it up since we're trading the same damage each turn while I can wait a turn to resolve bigger threats. Playing his Nylea's Disciple gains him 2 life and allows him to race favorably if I keep attacking with my Eidolons. Switching to W/R was a bit of a gamble in game 2 but his deck didn't really do much game 1 so I figured an aggressive start for us on the play would catch him by surprise. Getting the blowout on the Horizon Chimera was pretty sweet, naming blue is more relevant than green since Voyage's End is still a possibility, but if he had it he would bounce in response to Gods Willing. We don't go for the kill since Griptide or Voyage's End would be somewhat brutal, and we can always go for it next turn (although there is something to be said to giving our opponent a draw step).

As far as the draft goes, I'm not sure if the Cerberus is the right pick. It kinda commits us to R/B from the start and we happen to be passing good red and black cards. I think if it was any other rare I would go with the Gorgon, but sometimes you gotta go with the mythic. Getting the Emissary third is a pretty big signal that red is open and it makes the decision to take a red card over the Eidolon much better. Taking Rider over Cerberus is fine, we can pick up the Two-Headed Cerberus easy and if white is open then getting one of the top white commons that early would help us out greatly. We could take the Rider Pack 2 Pick 2, but it would be a change to B/W, not W/R, and I liked the red we had better than the white, so it's better to just take the red card there. I shouldn't have taken those Evangels, pretty bad picks looking back on it. If we were going to be in white then we should've taken the 2nd Wingsteed Rider, otherwise we take a Titan's Strength or Baleful Eidolon. Those picks don't cost us too much, but they still shouldn't have been made. I don't even know why I took that Scholar, the clear pick is Disciple hoping to wheel Spark Jolt. I think I tried to make white happen when I clearly wasn't in white. Taking Emissary over Nighthowler is probably wrong, Nighthowler is a very good card and hard to deal with if you get to bestow it onto a creature.

Game 2 of Round 2 was a mess. I think I should've put Celebrants in front of the Hoplite instead of the Eidolon because the Eidolon is a sure kill with no trick involved, and the attack only makes sense if there is a trick. It's better to throw away the Celebrants and trade it for a trick and keep a sure kill than to throw away the sure kill and keep an okay kill. I should've also held back the Blood Toll Harpies instead of trying to race. I think my inexperience with R/W Heroic really showed in that match and I made a lot of errors that I normally wouldn't.

My inability to play against R/W Heroic aside, I think we did okay, but there is definitely room for improvement. I will be taking on a Sealed PTQ before the season is over and I have to get better if I want to do well (I don't think I'm at the level to win, but top 32 would be a start). Until then, expect more DE's and 8-4s! If you have any comments, questions, or concerns please leave them in the comment section below.



Thanks for reading/watching!