Zwar Guide

This guide is based off a forum post by Manfred, a very skilled Sealed/Zwar Gokken player.

In Sealed deck/Zwar format, each player opens 6 packs distributed among 5 domains (with unaligned cards as well). One of the domains will have no cards in it except for the basic buildings. Out of these 6 packs you must build your army.

Deck Building Guidelines

You want to try to have a 30-40 card 2-domain deck. Around half of the deck should be creatures. Make sure to include ways to deal with dangerous enemy creatures (2-5 cards) and at least 1 cheap building to capture a flux well. These are guidelines, so you can ignore them as you wish, but you should only do so if you have another winning strategy in mind.

Choosing Domains

You want to consider the following i) Creatures ii) 1-domain creatures iii) Creature control (e.g. lysis, entangle) iv) Everything else

It's a good idea to chose one domain based on it having the most creatures. You won't use every creature in your deck, but a large number of creatures is almost a neccessity in the Sealed format.

Don't overlook the importance of 1-domain creatures. Games are sometimes decided before players get to 3 domains. Aim to have about 6 good 1-domain creatures.

Look for creature control. Some domains will have a lot, some not so much. Creatures and creature control are often enough to let you pick your domains.

If it's still a hard choice, look at the general card quality of the domains. Do you have lots of cool stuff to chose from? Will that "cool stuff" help you win?

Building the Deck

Once you have your two domains, put ONLY the good cards in the deck. Once that's done, any balance issues can be resolved with minor tweaking. How do you know which cards are the good cards? Lots of experience.

Breaking the Rules

Sometimes you have to break the rules. But break them with caution! 3-domain decks are possible when you won't have enough creatures in 2-domain. 4-domain decks are almost impossible.

It may seem like a good idea to have very few 1-domain creatures, but don't even think about it unless you have plenty of two domain creatures.

Playing

Play well. There aren't any shortcuts; you have to know the game and be good at thinking ahead. One note to newer players: if you build your deck well you should have good plays for your first few turns in your hand (meaning having a 1-domain creature, and ord stone, or a 2 flux 2-domain creature). If you don't, don't be afraid to mulligan. Don't mulligan below 5 unless it's really urgent, but you generally shouldn't just let those first few turns go to waste.