Whether your gearing up for Grand Prix London or just want to beat down at your local fnm draft or another sealed deck tournament these tips are for you!

(if you have no idea how to build a limited deck but still want to go to Grand Prix London the basics can be found in my very straightforward help for beginners guide here)

Every set I play a lot of limited as soon as all of the cards are previewed (there are many ways to do this from online programs, simulators or even to proxy up cards).

First Things First

The first things I try to get a feel on are the speed of the format and the average size of creatures in general. For Kaladesh the format is fast! There are a lot of very efficient smaller creatures, removal and combat tricks. Also the average size of creatures is quite small, many 4 mana creatures only have 2 power or 2 toughness for example. My general rule for this set is that 2/3 is the average size of creature I will be facing most of the time and everything that interacts with this favourably is a winner.

The next rough grouping is 3/4 which are some of the more premium sized commons and uncommons so anything that deals with these is stellar if it comes at a reasonable mana cost.

Cool Cars are for Cool People

I am of course talking about the new card type: vehicles. Now if you get a cool car (one of the rare ones) then you truly are a winner, however if you don’t, then several of the others are still good. I have had good results with all of the uncommon vehicles although I favour the ones with lower mana costs, lower crew costs and abilities that can generate card advantage. Specifically Bomat Bazaar Barge and Ballista Charger have won me a few games that came down to just needed a big creature or effectively allowing my summoning sick creatures to attack in a big way via crew.

As mentioned above there is a lot of good combat tricks which can make blocking vehicles annoying, but there are also several ways to punish an all in crew onto a big vehicle so be careful there. Normally I only play 0, 1 or 2 vehicles and view them in the same way as equipment, i.e. you do not want your deck full of them without the crew to use them but in small doses they can run over opponent’s creatures all day long.

Energy

As a full blown sceptic I was pleasantly surprised that energy is vastly better than I thought it would be in terms of flavour and power. I love playing energy cards, they really add a new dimension to the games and can feel super cool.

Now obviously the general rule here is that a bad card is not playable just because it also produces energy! This is the rule. Always follow this rule unless you have somehow assembled a functioning energy hungry deck with multiple payoffs and ways to gain and use energy. I will go as far as to say you will not get a deck like this at a sealed deck tournament and it is more reserved for draft.

So how you should use energy: as a synergy between cards in your deck that don’t even need to be in play at the same time to work. The perfect example of this would be thriving rhino or ibex, cards that when combined with some of the other efficient energy adding creatures or spells can become a wrecking ball, but are perfectly respectable by themselves.

Fabricate

Cards that have this are obviously good and provide a ton of options, the flip side of this is that cards that deal with 1 toughness creatures are much more useful in this set. There are also a higher than usual number of 1 toughness creatures in general. This means cards like Make Obsolete are absolute power houses, it’s not hard to make this an easy 2 for 1 in Kaladesh and can be as good as a 1 sided board wipe.

Instant Speed Removal and Bounce Spells

As mentioned above there is a lot of removal including the destroy artifact effects. They are almost entirely sorcery speed however, and most of the instants are uncommon. This means you should rate these cards much higher than normal because the ability to interact during combat is so important.

Specific Cards That Are Easily Overlooked

These are cards to keep note of that I have found to be excellent when compared to how people I have played against rate them.

Self – Assembler: This guy is the real deal! I cant count the number of games I have won from even having just 2 in my deck. As mentioned earlier a 4/4 is actually quite big in Kaladesh. Making this guy turn 5 and 6 will put a halt to all but the most savage ground assaults.

Blossoming Defence: Honestly I am surprised that I have to tell people about this one but it is really really strong. One mana pump spell that can also save your creature from removal. It can just shut people down but I frequently see it really late on into drafts.

Bastion Mastodon: I have been really impressed with this one too, id only play 1 or at a push 2 but don’t be fooled because even without white mana for vigilance the 4/5 body is actually massive in Kaladesh. Dukhara Peafowl also over performed for me many times, don’t think these can only go in decks which can easily activate their abilities.

Acrobatic Manoeuvre: This one is closer to protection from opponent’s removal (or eat a smaller creature in combat) + create a 1/1 servo or some energy + draw a card, in the right deck full of lots of fabricate guys or enter the battlefield triggers. I have found this card to be excellent

Ovalchase Daredevil: another card I originally estimated as pretty bad, but in the right deck for example black-white fabricate this one can generate so much card advantage. Chances are whatever blocks/becomes blocked is going to die to 4 power so even returning it once or twice already puts you ahead. At worst you are taking your opponents life total down by chunks of 4, which in an aggressive format is something opponents will not be too keen on.

That’s it for today, good luck in Grand Prix London and come over to the troll trader booth if you have any questions about the format. Also keep a look out for more of our articles preparing you for London this October. Good games all round and see you next time!