Magic: The Gathering Sealed Products

Playtesting can only do so much to prepare for how MTG players use a card. After a set is released, certain cards may heavily skew the play environment. To avoid players exclusively building decks that rely on that card and encourage diverse play styles, the card is banned. New bans and unbans happen with each set, so keep an eye out for our articles discussing what cards are legal.

Sealed is one of the established game formats for Magic: The Gathering. Typically 1v1, two players will build 40-card decks using six booster packs and as many land cards as they desire. This format is inherently evenly matched, as both players have the same odds of having good cards, and it’s great for improving on-the-spot deckbuilding skills.

In the Sealed MTG game format, players build 40-card decks using six booster packs. In Draft (also called Booster Draft), up to eight players pass around booster packs. They select one card from an open pack before passing it to their neighbor until all the cards have been selected, then build a 40-card deck. Both formats are popular at release events for new sets.