Help With Competitve Sarkhan's Unsealing
Standard Deck Help forum
Posted on Nov. 14, 2018, 1:44 p.m. by OP_Magikarp
I've been trying to come up with a competitive midrange deck that attacks the meta at a different angle. I thought about Sarkhan's Unsealing beacause triggering it can take down all the biggest threats in standard right now (both drakes, loxodon, any threat in golgari midrange) But it's also packed with boardwipes to deal with aggro and inevitability in the forms of Carnage Tyrant and Unsealing triggers against control.
Overall I think it can be a decent deck but i'd defintely like some help or just anyone to be honest on their thoughts, good or bad.
Some changes I've already considered are Ripjaw Raptor instead of Vine Mare
OP_Magikarp says... #4
Amari_Amirite whoops I was using the mystics as placeholders so I think I just copied them down when I was putting the deck into the website haha. Thank you so much though!
November 15, 2018 12:35 a.m.
OP_Magikarp says... #5
I must say though, the current meta is very aggressive and sometimes there might not be time to take a whole turn off to play Unsealing then find a 7 power creature to baordwipe. It's definitely nice but the early boardwipe with Clarion is great and can even be good after a board has been developed to swing for a ton lifelink to seal the game.
I do like some of the options in your decks, especially some of the 4 mana 7 power creatures to trigger earlier boardwipes.
November 15, 2018 12:47 a.m.
multimedia says... #6
Hey, I think you're right to stick with Clarion. If you've observed matchups in Standard you would see that Boros Aggro has a hard time dealing with Clarion. Vanguard and Bodyguard is the tech, but if aggro doesn't draw these creatures then Clarion will wreck. Even with these creatures Clarion will wreck just not everything aggro has. Playing a deck with Clarion currently is going to be a much better deck because of it. Giving Dinos lifelink can also be very good against aggro. Clarion is quite good with Ripjaw (drawing a card and lifelink).
If you like Dinos then my advice is continue to play Naya because of Temple Garden and Sacred Foundry. Include Llanowar, Migration, Commune, Brontodon, Ripjaw, Alpha, Tyrant, Ghalta, Clarion, Coil and Unsealing. Unsealing can be a win condition, but I wouldn't build around it because like you already said it's too slow. In my opinion Unsealing seems like a better card for control matchups then aggro matchups. It's ability to do damage when you cast a Dino gets through counterspells which are hard for Dinos to deal with and the damage can hit Teferi. Control matchups are slower matchups than aggro this gives you more time to set-up.
Ghalta in my opinion is a key card with both Dinos and Unsealing because of it's 12 power stats and cost reduction ability. Dinos can safely play three colors because of Temple Garden, Migration and Commune, even Drover can help, but I think Llanowar is the better mana dork because potential turn two Brontodon is very good against aggro and History of Benalia. Migration in my opinion is also a better card with Dinos than Drover, it's more reliable ramp especially when playing Clarion.
White doesn't only give you Clarion, but also sideboard Tocatli Honor Guard, Remorseful Cleric and Ixalan's Binding. Clarion for aggro, Guard for Golgari, Cleric for Izzet and Binding for Teferi.
November 15, 2018 8:51 a.m.
Agent_Fire says... #8
I have been playing with Unsealing for some time now, and I have taken down the path of adding Blue and not White as the splash color. As with my experiences of playing the deck, it loses the most to Teferi based decks, and mono-red frenzy. The counters in the board help with fighting against Teferi, and countering frenzy and the annoying Pheonix. The control matchup is far the worst for me, with a close to 20% win rate, however, both tokens and golgari are easy matchups with almost 90% win rate against them. Boros aggro of the larger variety is the roughly even matchup, however, a turn 3 or 4 unsealing normally leads to a direct victory in these games. I think that we need to develop a new tactic to fight control as the matchup is so poor without a resolved unsealing.
Here is the decklist that I use: Temur Unsealing
November 18, 2018 12:03 p.m.
OP_Magikarp says... #9
Agent_Fire Hmmm I would have thought that the control matchup is favorable for us. With a decent amount of midrange threats (including carnage tyrant) it seems decent. Especially with cast triggers if an unsealing gets resolved. If it truly is a bad matchup though I might stay away from it for now with the recent successes of Jeskai Control at the larger tournaments.
November 20, 2018 2:01 a.m.
Agent_Fire says... #10
OP_Magikarp That might just be reflective of my experiences with the deck with having bad draws in the control matchup. However, I think staying with the deck is a good idea, as it appears to have positive matchups against most other decks in the metagame. If the metagame shifts away from Cleansing Nova the matchup will improve greatly. The main question is Vine Mare worth a slot in the deck? As it great against mono-red decks and Bx decks and control decks. However, due to the performances of Mono-W, Deafening Clarion is being played more. All I think that is needed is to improve the matchup, is to change the sideboard and maybe change some of the main deck cards.
Amari_Amirite says... #2
Hello! This is precisely what I've been working on recently!
Sarkhan's Stomping is my deck list.
Right off the bat, you're going to want to swap those Elvish Mystic out for Llanowar Elves to make it standard legal.
I stuck with just RG because there's nothing I really need to add in W. You already have Sarkhan's Unsealing that behaves as a repeating Deafening Clarion even if it does take a couple more turns to get going. Vivien Reid and some sideboard cards like Broken Bond, Plummet, and Rabid Bite cover the vast majority of my removal needs.
Between my deck above and Thou Shall Unseal Thy Gruul Soul by andriygoblin we lay out a lot of the theories behind our configurations, both taking a slightly different approach.
November 14, 2018 4:26 p.m.