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Open all six booster packs in your Prerelease Kit, build a 40-card deck from the cards you opened, and add basic lands as needed. The best build is usually a consistent two-color deck with enough threats, answers, and early plays—not simply the colors containing your individually strongest cards.
What counts as your Sealed card pool?
In Sealed, your pool is the contents of six unopened booster packs. You may add any number of basic Plains, Islands, Swamps, Mountains, and Forests, including lands you did not open. Your sideboard is the rest of the cards opened from those packs. Wizards of the Coast lists a 40-card minimum for the deck; in ordinary builds, aim for exactly 40 so your strongest cards are more likely to appear. See the official Sealed Deck rules.
Prerelease Pack contents are set-specific. For example, Wizards’ 2026 The Hobbit Prerelease Guide lists six Play Boosters, one traditional foil promo card, a deck box, and a spindown die; it describes basic lands supplied by the local game store as part of the materials for building. Do not assume every set’s kit has the same extras. The six boosters are the pool used for your Sealed deck.
How to build the deck
1. Open and sort the pool
Open all six boosters, then group the cards by color. Put multicolor cards, colorless cards, and lands in separate piles. This makes it easier to see how deep each color is and what mana fixing is available. Wizards uses this sorting approach in its set-specific Prerelease guidance.
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- Contents: 6 Magic: The Gathering | Marvel Super Heroes Play Boosters Each Play Booster contains 14 Magic: The Gathering cards May contain these cards: MSH 1–384; MAR 41–100 1–4 cards of rarity rare o
2. Find your threats and answers
Look for cards that can win or take over a game, especially impactful creatures and spells, then identify removal and other interaction that can deal with an opponent’s threats. A color may contain one exciting card but too few other playable cards to support a full deck. Assess both the quality and quantity of the cards you can actually cast. Wizards’ Sealed strategy guidance emphasizes balancing threats and answers; its Foundations Prerelease Guide also discusses removal and curve construction.
3. Choose colors for both power and castability
Two colors are a useful default because they often supply enough playables while keeping the mana base manageable. Compare candidate builds by their threats, interaction, depth of playable cards, fixing, and ability to make early plays. Check nonbasic lands and other fixing before considering a third color. A powerful card is less useful if your mana cannot reliably cast it; the right colors depend on the pool, not a universal color ranking.
4. Start with 40 cards and tune the mana
Build to the 40-card minimum, usually with 23 nonland cards and 17 lands. Wizards’ Foundations guide says, “You’ll generally want to play 17 lands in your sealed deck, with 23 nonland cards filling out the rest of your 40-card deck.” Treat that as a starting recommendation, not a rule. In a two-color deck, a 9/8 land split is a reasonable first draft; adjust for colored mana costs and available fixing. If one color has more demanding colored costs, consider giving it more sources.
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A low-curve deck with mana help may function with fewer lands, while a slower deck or one with several expensive spells may need the full baseline or more. Make that decision from your curve and pool rather than treating 17 as mandatory.
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5. Check the curve before registering
Count your spells by mana value and ask whether you can make useful plays early, keep developing, and affect the game later. The Foundations guide offers this sample curve alongside 17 lands:
| Mana value | Sample number of cards |
|---|---|
| 1 | 1–2 |
| 2 | 7–8 |
| 3 | 5–6 |
| 4 | 3–4 |
| 5 | 2–3 |
| 6 | 0–1 |
This is a template, not a format requirement or a substitute for card quality. A strong deck may depart from it, but a pile concentrated at high mana values can struggle to affect the early game.
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- Contents: 6 Magic: The Gathering | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Play Boosters Each Play Booster contains 14 Magic: The Gathering cards May contain these cards: TMT 1–252; PZA 1–20 1–5 cards o
How to compare two possible builds
If two color combinations look viable, compare the actual decks rather than choosing by one standout card. Use these questions:
- Which build has more credible threats that can close a game?
- Which has better removal or other ways to answer opposing threats?
- Which colors provide more playable cards for the 40-card main deck?
- Can the mana base cast the cards on time, and does fixing make a splash reliable?
- Which curve gives you a better chance to affect the early game and keep developing?
These are practical evaluation dimensions drawn from Wizards’ general and set-specific guidance, not an official scoring system. Choose the build with the best overall combination of card quality and castability.
What to do with the cards you cut
Cards opened but not included in your 40-card deck form your sideboard. Keep them available: in a Sealed event, you can use them when making allowed between-game changes. Your starting deck, however, should be a coherent 40-card build rather than every playable card you opened.
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