What exactly is a sealed tourney?

I've never participated in any tournaments for SWM.

That's right. There is a point limit set, for example 125 is a new point format for sealed in DCI. You build to the point limit out of your boosters, and faction rules do not apply, so you can play anything together, and it often makes for some interesting synergies that aren't available under normal rules.

It's fun, but you don't always pull a good mix of pieces. Usually we play sealed when new sets come out, but you could do it with mixed sets also. I'd like to try that way one of these days.

that sounds awesome, i guess i'll have to see if they are doing that here

They are usually 100 points, you buy two boosters and make a squad from them (no faction restrictions)

Yes, but no one uses it.

True, the squads tend to be better, but it's hard choosing a pack, then rolling a 1 and watching someone else walk off with the Cad Bane that came from the pack you bought...

Yeah, that makes for some hard feelings. I lost Darth Nihl on a bad roll and ended up with someone else's gha nacht. When you're tight on cash that kind of thing can cause resentment. Poison the blood between friends and peers. We did that at one shop and one gamer never returned. He pulled Aurra Sing and was forced to watch everything good go. I think he got left with a Ephant Mon or Deena Shan or something. It was bad. He hated us.

I hate sealed drafts.

Man, that's a shame. If you live in South Jersey you should come out to Good vs. Evil or Jester's Playhouse on Saturdays. We'd love to see you.

PS. Am I reading this right? Is my rank "Junk Golem"? Ouch.

Excellent solution StevenO. I'm going to suggest that next time we do a sealed. Dang, that would have been a handy solution a year ago.

We've done sealed release events a couple different ways besides the standards already mentioned. They are not DCI-sanctioned, but fun alternatives. Most of us already have our cases by the time we get to run a release event the following weekend, so pull-wants for the collection are more limited for the release tourney and we can focus more on playing. Might not work for bigger groups with smaller collections.

Method 1 - everyone buys a booster and plays all 7 pieces for the tourney. (We've done it before where you can buy a second booster at any time during the tourney and use that one instead.) It depends on the balance of the set a bit and the pulls can be lopsided, but that was why we added the second booster option.

Method 2 - everyone buys two boosters and opens both. You keep the full contents of one and throw the other into the draft pile. Everyone rolls for draft position and select one per draft turn, then run reverse order for the even numbered draft rounds until all pieces are gone. Everyone still ends up with two full boosters worth of stuff and at least one of the two R/VRs you pulled. In this format we often enforce the faction-building rules (especially for the sets with only a couple factions). I like this one for me the best. I can mix my draft picks between army builders and the power R/VR pieces.

DCI official format here: http://www.wizards.com/dci/downloads/SWM_FLR_26Jan10_EN.pdf under sections 640 and 650.

Yeah, when we do sealed, you get first pick out of the box you buy. Then you pass to your left or right until all seven figs have been picked. I have never seen an option were you roll for picking a figure. We open a box, pick a fig, then pass the rest.