The Timeless Guide to Pre-Release / Sealed Battles (@ikailakai)

The Timeless Guide to Pre-Release / Sealed Battles

Hey guys! Kai (@ikailakai) here with an in-depth guide on how to win Sealed Battles more often. Sealed Battles have a general perception that they come down to luck. If your packs are good, you win, if your packs are bad, you lose. However, I believe that this is only partially true. If you have great fundamentals as a player and deck builder, you can play and build your way out of any situation and win much more often than the prospect of luck would let on.

After reading this section, you will be able to:

• Know how to identify strong cards in each set and build your deck accordingly

• Know how / when to defend in Sealed Battles

Outline

• 0 About Pre-release vs Sealed Battles

• 1.1 Sealed Battle Differences between Asia and Global

  • 1.1.1 IMPORTANT: Leader Effect

  • 1.1.2 Vanillas / 2000 Counters / Blockers

    • 1.1.2.1 Events

  • 1.1.3 Card Rarity

• 1.2 Constructing the Deck

  • 1.2.1 Strong Effects

  • 1.2.2 Combos

  • 1.2.3 Searchers

• 1.3 Final Cards and Pre-game prep

  • 1.3.1 Curve

  • 1.3.2 When to Counter, and Choosing First or Second

    • 1.3.2.1 Mulligan Practice

    • 1.3.2.2 Acrewing Advantage Going First

Glossary:

Vanilla: A card with no effect, 1000 counter, and the maximum possible power for its cost

Curve: Curve refers holistically to the maximum Don that you have for the turn. By playing ‘on curve,’ you are using all of the Don allotted to you efficiently by playing a character that uses all of the Don!! you currently have. If you are playing ‘on curve,’ you are playing a 3 cost on 3 Don, a 5 cost on 5 Don, etc.

Board Control: The character area is what is generally considered the ‘Board.’ Having Board Control means that you are in an advantageous situation regarding the Board, whether it is having a powerful character that can flip the game, or having more characters on the board. Having Board Control generally means that you have an easier time maneuvering through the game.

Brick / Bricking: Bricking refers to a state where your hand is in a bad situation. It may feel like you are holding ‘Bricks’ with how difficult it is to maneuver throughout the game due to your hand situation.

First, why am I making this article? People focus a lot on the competitive side of this game, but there are many ways to enjoy it. There are pre-release events, sealed battles, and the main format, but most creators neglect to cover these other formats even though some people enjoy them. In Japan, we do not have pre-release events, so I cannot cover this subject. However, we have Sealed Battles and it’s one of my favorite formats as I simply enjoy putting together decks. On top of this, the matches feel like we are back in OP01 where cards were simpler and slower. If you haven’t played in these events, whether it’s due to disinterest, lack of confidence, or time, but find any of these aspects interesting, I recommend giving these events a try after reading this as I have compiled all of the knowledge and trial and error I went through when playing this format to make the best guide I can.

0 About Pre-release vs Sealed Battles

While Sealed Battles and Pre-release are slightly different due to the nature of being about to choose your leader for Pre-release events, the types of cards will still be the same. Some cards will not work the same way, like leader-locked cards, but all other concepts apply to this format, so if you are interested in leveling up your Pre-release deck building skills, and want a deep dive into Sealed Battles this guide is for you. 

We do not have Pre-release events in Japan so I cannot write about the topic in too much depth. The nature of the leader having an ability may change some things, but it is not my realm of expertise. Nonetheless, I hope that whether you are a Pre-release player or a Sealed Battle player, this guide helps you in some way, whether it’s deck building, or playing in these types of formats!

1.1 Sealed Battle Differences between Asia and Global

First, it is important to note that Japanese (Asia) Sealed Battles and English Sealed Battles are different due to the number of cards in each pack being different.

Japanese packs contain 6 cards each, and you open 8 packs to fight with a total of 30 cards of your 48 choices.

On the other hand, English packs contain 12 cards each, and you open 6 packs to fight with a total of 40 cards of your 72 choices.

As there are many cards that you absolutely want to play, as well as absolutely don’t want to play, what this means in context is that you have less difficult decisions for the English version as more of your deck will be filled with good cards, and you can afford to cut weaker cards.

Holistically, what this means, as you have more cards to choose from, is that your decks will be relatively stronger, with more combo pieces and chances for 2000 counters, blockers etc. The number of Rare cards is also higher in English packs, resulting in a total of 12 Rare+ cards for the English version, and 8 Rare+ cards for the Japanese version.

1.1.1 IMPORTANT: Leader Effect

According to the rules, this leader is a card with all the names, characteristics, and attributes of the cards.

What does this mean?

Cards like Birdcage, where your leader needs to be Donquixote Doflamingo to use the effect, can be used as your leader has ‘all the names,’ therefore including the name Donquixote Doflamingo. Many people are aware of this already, but did you know about this?

The English translation of this card makes it a bit more difficult, but the Japanese version is very clear that if you have another Kung Fu Jugon, this Jugon is a blocker. As our leader has all names, it’s also a Kung Fu Jugon, and therefore, Kung Fu Jugon is automatically a blocker when on the board.

Knowing that not only could these leader restrictions not apply to Luffy, but make some of the cards stronger is a great way to help choose cards and gain an advantage over players who are not aware of some of these interactions.

1.1.2 Vanillas / 2000 Counters / Blockers

The 3 types of cards you will almost always add into your deck are Vanillas, 2000 Counters, and Blockers.

In a normal constructed format, decks are prepared to deal with cards played on the board. As such, cards without an effect that immediately affects that board can be seen as generally slow. However, in a format where the card pool and deck power is lower, there is a very high likelihood of a card being played surviving until the next turn. This means that [On Attack] effects as well as cards with high stat lines are comparatively stronger in this format due to the game speed. That being said, effects that are already strong in the standard format, like [On Play] and [Activate: Main] are also stronger as they can interact with the board from the turn it is played.

As there are not too many strong [On Attack] effects compared to Vanillas, let’s focus on those.

For those who do not know, a ‘Vanilla’ refers to a card that has no effect, but has the maximum possible stat line for its cost. 

A 1 cost card can have a maximum stat-line of 3000 power.

A 2 cost card can have up to 4000 power.

3 cost = 5000

4 = 6000

5 = 7000

etc. 

As there is minimal out-of-hand removal, the best way to clear a character is to hit it and take it down the old-fashioned way. As such, having a higher power line is harder to attack due to the nature of the game.

For the sake of this format, the nature of the powerline is more valuable than whether or not the card has counter. As such, cards such as Fuza, I will still refer to as Vanilla as it has the maximum stat line possible for its cost.

This card is crazy in the format btw, easily S tier.

Playing these Vanillas on curve allows you to keep your tempo and board advantage throughout the game. 

Note: Not all Vanillas are made equally. 1 cost and 2 cost Vanillas require Don to be able to hit the leader, and as such, are harder to use, and not very efficient. I would not include a 2 cost Vanilla unless my packs were horrible, and I don’t think I would add a 1 cost Vanilla in any case.

As there is minimal immediate removal, board control is the most important aspect to Sealed Battle. Ensuring that your board survives, and the opponent’s doesn’t is crucial. As such, 2000 counters, and Blockers have very high value in this format as well. Ensuring you can efficiently defend attacks to keep your hand healthy.

Most decks tend to run 12 2000 counters. 

In a 30 card deck, the deck would feel like it has 12 2000 counters with 7.2 2000 counters

In a 40 card deck, the deck would need 9.6 2000 counters to feel like 12 2000 counters in a 50 card deck. 

Getting this many 2000 counters is ambitious, to say the least. Due to this lack of 2000 counters in the format, people will tend to want to hit at [Equal power +1000] often (Meaning 6000 into 5000, or 7000 into 6000), etc. The cards that are strongest against this plan of hitting at higher power are of course 2000 counters, and blockers. Blockers tend to stick just as easily as characters do, equating to 1 free ‘infinite counter’ by merit of absorbing any one hit, regardless of power, once. 

99% of all 2000 counters and blockers will find a spot in your deck, so make sure to include them. The only time you wouldn’t is if it was an unusable blocker like ‘On play trash 2 life, then play whatever. If the demerit is simply too large to want to play it, avoid it, but in most cases, any vanilla stat-line, any 2000 counter, and any blocker will be included in your final construction.

1.1.2.1 Events and Total Deck Counter.

Lastly, events. The usage of events is generally a good idea, but not every event is made equally. To decide if you want to use an event, think about how easy it is to use, and how much you need it.

For this, I like to calculate the maximum counter of the deck. I have found through my testing that if I have over 32000 total counter in the deck, then I feel like I have sufficient counter to play the game. Less than this and I am letting through attacks that I don’t want to from time to time. For a 40 card deck, this would equate to around 43000 in the deck.

Note: This is a bad way to estimate if you have sufficient counter in a normal constructed deck as the gimmicks and abilities of each deck vary vastly.

While a card like Meteor-Strike of Love can seem good for defending in the game, it is very difficult to use this card well as it’s a card that grabs one of your life, to defend… your life. Not only this but it cannot be used when you are at 0 life as the condition cannot be met. As such, I would try to avoid cards like this unless I am struggling for counter. If I cannot reach this 32000, or 43000 total counter benchmark, I would use this card to aid where it can for some tough situations.

Conversely, a card like Shave can be great as it is essentially a 2000 counter. Although it costs 1, and the second effect cannot be met, it will always be +2000, for 1 card. In this vein of thinking, +4000 events have the highest merit, assuming that there is no condition that is difficult to meet. 

Be careful with Events as they tend to get stuck in the user’s hand, but make sure to utilize them to cover some of your deck’s weaknesses.

1.1.3 Card Rarity

Card Rarity is an important factor to these packs that is often neglected. Searchers tend to be Rare cards, but you aren’t always excited to see your Rare slot eaten by a searcher as it needs targets to be good. The truly important thing to consider regarding Card Rarity is the rarity of 2000 Counters, and blockers.

Let’s take this example:

In OP07, there are 5 Common 2000 counters, meaning that in the Japanese format, you would get around 4-5 2000 counters on average.

In OP08, there is 1 Common 2000 counter only. The result of this is that you will average 2-3 2000 counters in your deck.

Before going to a Sealed Battle, make sure to count the number of 2000 Counters and Blockers in Common rarity as this will give you an idea for the opponent’s total counter. This will help you with making reads like ‘How likely is my attack to go through with X cards in hand,” etc.

If you get an abundance of 2000 Counters, you can feel very good about yourself.

1.2 Constructing the Deck

When you add all of the powerful Vanillas, 2000 Counters, Blockers, and Events, you usually have around half of your deck filled, give or take. The next cards you’ll want to consider are cards with very strong effects and decent stat lines, potential Combos, and if the situation calls for it, searchers.

1.2.1 Strong Effects

Even if a card doesn’t have a Vanilla stat-line, the cards can have very universally powerful effects.

Something like Bear.King, which has probably never been considered in a constructed deck for longer than 15 seconds, is extremely powerful in Sealed Battles. Playing Bear.King as soon as possible can flip games as although the stat-line isn’t 7000, the effect is simply insane.

Even if Bear.King didn’t have this powerful effect, it is still worth considering as it has a near Vanilla stat-line. These cards that are 1000 power less than the Vanilla stat line can still be justified even if the effect isn’t usable as the base power is still nice, even with the price markup.

Something like Niji cannot be used for a majority of the game but is still worth including as the 5 cost 6000 stat-line is ‘good enough’ in many cases. On top of this, he has counter, so there isn’t a real reason not to use him if we are debating on how to fill out our deck. If these cards don’t have counter, take some time to consider if it’s needed as we don’t want our hand to brick.

1.2.2 Combos

Some sets will introduce card combos for players to mess with. While many of these aren’t insanely strong in constructed decks, almost any card combo is strong in Sealed Battles are they are designed to acrew advantage. As people generally (and optimally) are playing on curve in Sealed Battles, Combos that allow you to cheat out more cards are incredibly strong as they let you play more than 1 card per turn in some cases.

Jinbe works with any Warlord card. If you pull Jinbe from your packs, you may force more Warlords into your deck than usual to make sure the hit rate of this combo is higher.

Something like 4 cost and 7 cost Ichiji is another Combo. The 4 cost Ichiji on its own is quite bad as it doesn’t even have a near-Vanilla stat-6line. The 7 cost Ichiji is ok (it can get Rush when you are both at 10 Don), but again, is not game-ending on its own. However, 4 cost and 7 cost Ichiji together, will automatically win many games.

If you happen to spot these combos, playing towards them will increase the ceiling of your deck, hopefully without sacrificing the floor.

1.2.3 Searchers

People will automatically ignore searchers, but this is incorrect. Searchers can be some of the strongest cards as they bring consistency to a format without consistency. As long as you don’t miss the search, a searcher will essentially allow you to play with a smaller deck. By having a smaller deck, you can draw what you are looking for more often. However, you need the search to hit for this to be true. 

I have personally found searchers to be good if you can hit a target with at least 70% accuracy for Sealed Battles. We can calculate the likelihood of a search hitting with a Hypergeometric Model. As no one has time for that, here are the number of targets you will want for each type of searcher.

30 Card Deck (Japan Format)
3 card search - 10 Targets = 71.9%
4 card search - 8 Targets = 73.3%
5 card search - 6 Targets = 70.2%

40 Card Deck (Global Format)
3 card search - 13 Targets = 70.4%
4 card search - 10 Targets = 70.0%
5 card search - 8 Targets = 69.4%

If there’s an extremely powerful card that you have a searcher for, but not enough other good targets, you can still consider it as a card that will, at best, find your power card, and at worst, cycle your deck by 5 cards. Keep these thresholds in mind if you are debating whether to add a searcher to a deck. Just don’t immediately throw them aside.

1.3 Final Cards and Pre-game Prep

At this point, you should have most of your deck filled out and are choosing the last few cards to add to your deck. 

1.3.1 Curve

Now, if you haven’t already, line up your cards by cost. Separating the cards that you want to play on curve.

You will generally want 5+ (Japanese Format) or 6+ (English Format) 3 and 4 costs to ensure that you can play something on curve on 3 or 4 Don!!

For 5+ cost cards I generally like to have 3-4 at least, but this isn’t always possible. Nonetheless, padding out your curve is important in this format.

The key to this is cards that you want to play. Even if you have a 4 cost 5000, if it’s a 2000 counter, we want to avoid playing it as the counter stat is valuable. Separate cards that you would be willing to play with initiative, vs cards that you want to save to react to the opponent, whether it’s 2000 counters, or cards that minus power on play, for example.

Check your curve, your total counter, and any potential combos to pad out the final cards in your deck, and you now have your 30 or 40 cards that you’re going to fight with!

Now, how do we utilize them to their maximum potential?

1.3.2 When to Counter, and Choosing First or Second

Generally in this format, as the 6000 power line is so strong, going second is valuable as you get to play your 4 cost 6000 power Vanilla. Conversely, as you want to be defending your characters to maintain the strength of your board, you don’t always want to rest your 3 cost 5000 Vanilla on turn 3 going first. By resting this character, you open yourself to attacks to your character rather than your life, which prevents you from gaining resources from your life.

Generally, as is for more than 5 life leader’s default, taking to 3 life is no problem. Once you reach 3 life, you need to start considering if you need to defend attacks that come to your life, as when you defend your life, it makes your board easier to take. As such, in some cases, especially if you have an abundance of blockers, taking down to 2 life is no problem. As we want the extra resources from our life, strategically leaving our characters active is a crucial step (even in the standard format) to force the opponent’s attacks in the direction that we want them to go is an excellent way to gain resources while maintaining board presence. If you see that resting a character gives your opponent more advantage than it gains you, just don’t rest it!

Nonetheless, going second by nature has more resources as they not only get a free draw at the start of the game but also can retaliate first. Going first is best for rushing down the opponent as you get to hit first, and going second is best for controlling the board as you get to answer your opponent’s attacks first. In this format, generally going second is stronger, but that doesn’t mean that it will always be that way for every deck. Sometimes, you will get excellent cards for a curve going first.

If for example, you get many odd-cost Vanillas, and not many even-cost Vanillas, there is no point in forcing yourself to go second. Evaluate what is strongest for your deck, and choose the side that suits your deck best.

1.3.2.1 Mulligan Practice

This doesn’t need its section, but I think it’s worth emphasizing. Many people finish making their deck and turn in all the paperwork and the cards to the store immediately so they can fidget with their phones. (I don’t know if Global is as strict and careful about cheating as they are in Japan). However, if you have extra time after building your deck, you shouldn’t be wasting it. Keep looking through 5 cards as if they are your starting hand, and ask yourself if you would keep it, or mulligan it, and if you would rather have that hand when you are first, or second. If you are unsure if you should go first or second after looking at your deck, just try mulliganning about 15 times and you’ll notice you would have wanted your hand for either first or second more often.

Note: Know what cards you’re mulliganning for:

Have an idea for about 4-5 cards you would want to have in your starting hand when going first and second

In a normal 50 card deck, mulliganning in search of 1 card (only 4 copies) has a low chance of succeeding, however necessary it is from time to time. 

If you are looking for 1 of 4 cards:

If you are looking for 1 of 5 cards:

The chance of you finding 1 of the cards you are looking for is quite high, so if there are cards you really want to find. Hard Mulliganning for them is an option.

If you have a game-ending card, to the point that if you just play it, you will most likely will, mulliganning exclusively for that card is also an option.

If you are looking for 1 card:

The probability is quite low, but if your deck is well-rounded to the point that there are few “unplayable” starting hands, taking the risk to find your power cards can be found if it means you’ll automatically win 20-30% of your games.

1.3.2.2 Acrewing Advantage Going First

The last point I want to cover is the situation where you go first when you want to go second. In this case, it can feel like you are fighting an uphill battle as you are playing your late game curve, just one turn late.

However, we can utilize the weakness of decks in this format to equalize the playing field. Going first, if you don’t have cards with a great curve, means that you tend to have Floating Don!! Floating Don!! are Don!! that you did not use to play a character and are left over. The Don is used to attack to characters and hit, or to leave for Counter Events. 

When going first, we want to utilize this floating Don!! to create more 6000 power attacks that the opponent annoyingly has to answer. By doing this over and over consistently throughout the game, we can pull back to card advantage when going first forcing the opponent to use 2 cards to defend 6000 power attacks.

Closing & About the Bans

This was my complete guide on Sealed Battles. I hope that you learned something new. I will be uploading a video to my YouTube channel (@ikailakai) going through the contents of Sealed Packs and discussing the points here to create a complete deck, so please look forward to that for additional reinforcement to this guide.

Thank you by the way for helping my channel grow so fast. I will keep trying to put out good vibes and high-quality content, but will not be reducing my Patreon content. I’m planning on increasing my output here, and adding a variety of content aside from just Leader Guides like you saw earlier this month with the Lethal Guide and this one. 

We are in a weird situation where Japan played OP08 without bans, and overseas will be playing OP08 with RP Law and Enies Lobby banned. As I never got to experience this meta, I will be doing some theory work analyzing Asian and Japanese tournaments (with bans) to give my take on the OP08 meta when it nears release overseas. I will try my best to do the topic justice, so stay tuned. 

Thank you,

Kai