[CopySix]

I am heading out to the release event at the local gaming club this weekend.

Beyond familiarizing myself with the new Shadowmoor cards, what general recommendations or advice would you have for working together a deck from sealed (and boosters) ?

[imachampion]

Take all the removal you can get in a draft...and use all the removal you have in sealed. It is far and few between with this set.

[Trick]

I wrote an article last week about how I approached building my Shadowmoor deck, check it out for my input on the set

[BassmanARW]

The aura cycle is amazing. Definitely use them if it is reasonable to do so. People seem to favor RG a lot, but I think that UB with a possible white splash is very competitive. RG lacks in removal unless you count stuff like Burn Trail or Flame Javelin (which I would rather have dealt to the face). The problem I see with RG is in the mirror match. You end up with ridiculous stalemates in which no one wants to attack because each of them may have persist tricks along with being able to block to advantage followed by a massive swing. I played UBw at the prerelease and it was great because you can generally control their big stuff while playing evasive creatures. This is all theoretical since obviously you have to go with w/e you open, but I just think that a lot of people have been dismissing UB quite a bit.

Good luck!

[MN Nick]

Don't be afraid to color splash the hybrids. What I did when i made my decks was to figure out my effective colors, then anything playable in those colors became a possibility. Between all the hybrids, I had all 5 colors represented, but I was really only playing 3. Having an aggressive R/G/W deck was great. But the mirror match, as someone stated above, thats when being able to splash in the b/w and b/b cards came in handy.

I won a lot of games because i had a Trip Noose and Silkbind Faerie on the board and I could control my opponents creatures.

This set has a lot of creative freedom to it. I thought it played very well, but time will tell.

Also: If you can, look for things that will win games as you go. When I drafted, I would look for cards that maybe on their own werent that good, but comboed with something, they were an almost game winner. This sounds like 101, but at first I passed a lot of good cards until i started to see things like the aura cycles being played. It dawned on me that you might not be able to get a Wilt Leaf Cavalier, but odds are you will see some good combo color creatures. After that, taking the aura's make them nye unstoppable.

[Jimbobway]

My experiences with shadowmoor is only from draft, so some of this may not apply to sealed. I think that Red/X is the best in draft.

 I drafted R/g/b multiple times and was very successful each time. I would grab as many of the Tattermunge Duo as i could and also a couple of the hybrid hill giants. The aura's are game winners, if you can swing with the R/G Runes of the Deus you either win or decimate their board and usually win shortly after. One problem with the R/g/b decks that i drafted was wither causes you lots of problems because they may not kill your creatures but they shrink them enough where they don't apply enough pressure.

I also drafted U/w/b and I think Silkbind Faerie and steel of the godhead are very good if not essential cards to the deck.

Also the scarecrows if they are in your matching colors you should grab because they are all very good.

[gleemax]

Best advice,  realize that removal in Shadowmoor is hard to come by and go ahead and use those awesome auras.  Normally you'd be worried about using auras since they beg for a 2-1, but solid removal is hard to come by in this set and most will just kill a small guy anyway.  Aura those creatures up and swing ftw.