Welcome to the third of our ten guides on the mini-events that make up the 2023 Magic Arena Decathlon. This is the kick-off event of the calendar year, and if you’re here then you probably already completed parts one (Jump In!) and two (Pauper). Hopefully you (unlike me) managed to get those coveted tokens to gain entry to the Decathlon finals.
Today there are two new Decathlon events dropping. This guide is for the first: Mixed Dominarian Sealed. Make sure you check out our other guide today for Gift Bag Emblem Standard as well!
For more information on how this event works, and the overall schedule and rewards, make sure you read our complete guide to what the Decathlon is, and then come back here.
Mixed Dominarian Sealed is an incredibly random format which involves opening two packs each of Dominaria, Dominaria United, and The Brothers’ War. With this kind of mixed bag of cards it’s going to be very difficult to build synergy. To prepare for this event you’ll probably want to just brush up on basic limited concepts like your land/spell splits, building your mana base, and getting your curve right.
However, there are a few mechanics which are also worth looking out for as you could get a bit of an edge with a lucky sealed pool. Because of the randomness inherent in rares and mythic rares, these discussions look only at common and uncommon cards across all three expansions.
Dominarian Sealed Mechanic Focus I – Historic
One of the main themes that does overlap all three sets however is legendary creatures. The original Dominaria introduced the concept of Historic which is any card that’s an artifact, legend, or saga. For artifacts you’ll be able to draw from The Brothers’ War where both your packs will be guaranteed to include a retro frame artifact and there are good chances to get at least one more. Sagas are less plentiful, but 11 of them appear across Dominaria and Dominaria United. Somewhat surprisingly though, there are more legendary cards at common and uncommon (45) across all three sets than artifacts (41).
All told you may be able to get some synergy going with cards like Cabal Paladin or D’Avenant Trapper. Even a small effect like Artificer’s Assistant or Relic Runner can make a huge difference in such a wildly unpredictable format.
Dominarian Sealed Mechanic Focus II – Wizards
There are a lot of wizards in these sets, 29 in total. A few of them are pretty big powerhouses like Balmor, Battlemage Captain and Adeliz, the Cinder Wind. Add a prowess card from BRO and you could have a pretty solid Izzet deck in the works. Cards like Blink of an Eye, Opt, and Temporal Machinations from Dominaria can work very well with prowess cards and wizards from Dominaria United and The Brothers’ War.
Dominarian Sealed Mechanic Focus III – Sacrifice
The last mechanic I want to cover is sacrifice, which appears across the Mardu colors in all three sets. This theme is most prevalent in The Brothers’ War where you’ll want to find cards like Junkyard Genius and Powerstone Fracture. A few powerhouse cards like Whisper, Blood Liturgist, Hurler Cyclops, and Gixian Infiltrator can turn this deck into a very fast clock.
That said, look for whatever synergy you can find, and remember that a strong on-color curve plus a few combat tricks are going to likely get you further along than synergy across mechanics that weren’t really meant to mesh together.
Rich Stein (he/him) has been playing Magic since 1995 when he and his brother opened their first packs of Ice Age and thought Jester’s Cap was the coolest thing ever. Since then his greatest accomplishments in Magic have been the one time he beat Darwin Kastle at a Time Spiral sealed Grand Prix and the time Jon Finkel blocked him on Twitter.