At Regular REL (FNM, most drafts, prerelease parties, etc.), limited tournaments (those using a card pool from sealed product, such as drafts or sealed deck) use a default called “continuous construction.” You can assume this is the case as long as the event is not being run at Competitive REL, you aren’t asked to register your deck, and the head judge doesn’t tell you otherwise.

So, what exactly is “continuous construction”? Well, it means that you aren’t stuck with the deck you started the tournament with! You’re still limited to the pool of cards you opened or drafted, of course, but between games and between matches, you can modify your deck however you like (including changing the basic lands around). If you realize a card in your sideboard would be better in your main deck, you’re free to swap it for the next round. If you hate your deck so much that you don’t want to play it, you can switch to an entirely different deck with different colors as long as your card pool lets that work for you!

Some people even like to build two totally different decks, sleeve them both, and switch from one to the other from game 1 to game 2!

Just remember that this is different from constructed events, where your main deck and sideboard are fixed when you start the first game of the event, so you have to stick with it for the duration of that event.

Today’s Tournament Tip written by Josh Stansfield