Are they draft, or are they just sealed booster, or are they a sealed random starter, and a couple boosters?

I'm curious, as I'm thinking of entering the sealed at pastimes on the 17th of july...

Thanks much for your help ^_^

It's 4 or 5 boosters (depending on who's running the event). You make a minimum 30 card deck out of your available cards. Then play swiss to a top 8 with single elimination in the top 8. Some places will have the top 8 do a draft, others just have you play the deck you constructed all throughout the tournament.

Oh, and no sideboard or switching cards in and out. Whatever you construct, that's your deck. :)

Hope that helped!

I really recommend sealed, it is possibly one of the most fun formats. Zambo basically covered the details, but if I can encourage you to go out, all the better.

It is mad fun. In fact, Sealed is what made me use Cyclops, Slim. I kept getting lightweight packs but plenty of small X-men. Slim is slick in Sealed. (Of course you would rather have a couple six drops instead.)

I c...

Has anyone played at the pastimes (in niles, Il.) PCQ sealed? I'm wondering if they do the top 8 draft...

It usually comes down to how many players there are. Unless there are less than 20, there should be a draft. If there is no draft, then you pretty much know which two decks will be in the finals.

umm... I don't think I follow you Stubarnes. What two deck types ?

Forgive me, I'm uber-new to the game... T.T

No forgiveness neccessary... you will catch up fast. In Sealed, there will be three or four people who will pull vastly superior decks. If these players build the decks well and know the game, their advantage in the tournament will be unbeatable. If there are less than 20 people and they cut to the Top 8 and finish without a draft, it will be obvious which two players got lucky and even if all 8 players are equally skilled, only two or three will have a chance at the Invite. This is the reason for the draft. If the TO has the packs and is willing, you can still draft with less than 20 people.

The TOs should always draft, UDE provides packs to draft the top 4/8

As long as you have 9 or more, you should be drafting top 4/8

The format works as follows

4-8 3 rounds of swiss
9-16 4 rounds of swiss, top 4
17-32 5 rounds of swiss, top 8
Etc...

I did find that was a disapointment @ the first Columbus PCQ. I managed to withstand the ugliness of my pull and the dropping of others to make it to the top 8 (go number 8!!!!!). To my dismay, I had to play out the deck I was left with. Managed a first game win, misplayed a GREAT second game and lost the match. I had a fine time otherwise. It was just a letdown to not be able to draft into the top.

Actually, this is not true - Upper Deck does not supply the product for the sealed portion or the draft, the Organizer does.

However, just so you know, Pastimes will always do a draft for the top 4 or 8 becuase the players wanted it that way!!

the big factor to remember at the beginning of sealed is that you do NOT keep the cards you're pulling and writing down. Sucks if you pull a Savage Beatdown...

anyone hear of anybody quitting in the middle of pulling their packs?

You should read your packet again, while they do not supply the product for the sealed portion, it specificlly states that they will re-imbuse the PTO for running a top 8 booster draft. If you have not received your reimbusrsement, you should contact your UDE representitive.

This will be the case with the Seattle PCQs being held this weekend on the 10th and 11th in Seattle.

Also, UDE's research has shown that five packs for the sealed portion of Limited is a superior card pool for building more reasonable decks. Officially, the use of five packs versus four takes place starting after July 18th when the season begins for Pro Circuit Gen Con SoCal. However, to maximize player experience this weekend, the Seattle PCQs will be adopting the five packs per player policy in the Limited portion qualifiers for Pro Circuit Gen Con Indy.

I look forward to seeing everyone there!

James.