Lately my draft results have been showing that the best two decks by far in Ravnica Limited are R/W and U/B.
While I agree that the G/W token archetype is also strong and there are numerous ways to combine Green and Black with splashes of other colors, the above two archetypes have proven to be the best in my experience over the past couple weeks.
I covered the U/B mill deck in my last article, so I think it only makes sense to cover my other favorite archetype in the format this week.
Sample Decklists
Below are a couple of R/W decks from this past Friday’s group of drafts. The first deck is a hyper-aggressive deck that plans to win by rushing the opponent as quickly as possible while the second list is much slower and more controlling. I think a normal R/W list would be found somewhere in the middle of these two decks, combining elements from both.
Frenzied Goblin
War-Torch Goblin
Viashino Slasher
Sell-Sword Brute
2 Boros Swiftblade
2 Thundersong Trumpeter
Boros Guildmage
Courier Hawk
2 Skyhunter Legionnaire
Nightguard Patrol
2 Flame-Kin Zealot
Screeching Griffin
Conclave Equenaut
Wojek Siren
Fiery Conclusion
Boros Fury Shield
Incite Hysteria
Grifter’s Blade
Char
Dogpile
This list is a bit more extreme than most of the R/W decks you will end up drafting. By that I mean, this deck is absolute balls to the wall aggression at any cost. The whole plan here is to force in the twenty points of damage as quickly as possible through brute force and speed.
Boros Swiftblade
This guy is always going to be a solid two-drop in any RW build, but he is especially good in this particular list due to all of the pump effects. Since I have two copies it also ensures that they will get online for a lot of damage much more often. It’s because of this that I took the Grifter’s Blade over a few other playables in the middle picks of pack three. Sadly, there wasn’t a single Rally the Righteous in the draft to really make these guys go nuts.
As far as the rest of the deck, it is a collection of quick beaters, of which the Legionnaires are by far the best. The Conclave Equenaut almost got cut from the deck and it really wasn’t good in any of my matches since it is so cumbersome in comparison to the rest of the deck. Flame-Kin Zealots were obviously amazing and responsible for at least two of my match wins.
As far as some of the tricks go, I don’t normally play Incite Hysteria, but I thought it would be better than a 17th land in this deck and could help deliver the final blow if the board should manage to stall out. I really don’t think it’s a horrible card but most of my R/W builds end up being more in the mid-range and therefore having Falter is not nearly as useful. Dogpile is also great in this deck with all of the dorks to power it up.
Veteran Armorer
Sparkmage Apprentice
Nightguard Patrol
Goblin Spelunkers
Sabertooth Alley-Cat
2 Benevolent Ancestor
Screeching Griffin
3 Viashino Fangtail
Divebomber Griffin
Sunhome Enforcer
3 Conclave Equenaut
2 Boros Signet
Fiery Conclusion
Lightning Helix
Galvanic Arc
2 Rally the Righteous
Hopefully you can see the huge difference between this list and the first one. This list is more of a controlling deck that hopes to get set up on the board with Fangtails and eventually finish you with fliers or perhaps the deck’s MVP, Sabertooth Alley-Cat.
I wasn’t extremely happy with this deck after the draft because I felt that I didn’t have enough early guys to power up the Equenauts and I also found myself wishing I had a third Signet to ensure a four drop on turn 3. My fears were quickly assuaged though when I 3-0’d this draft as well as the first one. Benevolent Ancestor was really great for me in this list as it gave me plenty of time to set up my pingers and fliers and stopped such fatties as Bramble Elemental and Guardian of Vitu-Ghazi.
Fiery Conclusion
Another thing I haven’t mentioned yet is that my opinion of Fiery Conclusion keeps going up every time I play with it. I wouldn’t recommend running more than two copies in any deck, and one is probably a good number for most normal decks, but the card just keeps on proving its worth. For instance, in this draft I was involved in game three of a tight match against a G/W token generation deck. This is a pretty strong matchup for my deck since I have the pingers and can also fly overtop of his chump blockers. Game three was almost a catastrophe when he cast Oathsworn Giant, which would stop my two Fangtails from keeping his token army at bay. This is where Fiery Conclusion stepped in and gave me an answer that I otherwise would not have had. Finally, in the first decklist I posted I would certainly run two copies of the Conclusion if I had access to them as they are just amazing with small dorks that can “trade” for important bigger creatures on a key turn of the game.
Important Cards
As with all of my archetype articles, it’s time to go over the important cards for the archetype and what you’ll need to know about them.
Skyknight Legionnaire and Thundersong Trumpeter
While I don’t want to waste your time here as everyone knows these two are great cards, I just want to say that they are the backbone of the archetype. I have no problem picking a Trumpeter first pick first pack hoping to get fed the archetype.
Viashino Fangtail and Galvanic Arc
While I hope you never have to make the pick between these two (I haven’t had to yet, so I don’t think they run together), they are both excellent cards for the deck for obvious reasons. I think I would tend to side with John Pelcak on this otherwise close decision and go with the Fangtail simply because he is a strong attacker in addition to being a pinger. Galvanic Arc also has the annoying problem that the opponent cant stop it from happening by killing the creature that it was going to enchant in response, or doing other nasty things to stop the Arc from actually making it into play. It’s for this reason that you should consider casting it on an opponent’s creature if they have mana up and the First Strike ability isn’t going to be relevant on either side of the board.
As far as the Fangtail goes, the pinging ability isn’t as good as it’d usually be due to the presence of Veteran Armorer as well as the fact that the Selesnya Evangel has two toughness. The thing I like about the guy though is that he will actually just attack a lot of the time and you can fall back on the ability whenever the board stalls out and just go to the dome with it.
Rally the Righteous
When I saw this card on the spoiler I thought it was going to be a strong card for the archetype. Let’s just say it has far exceeded my initial expectations.
Combine this card with quick creatures and the likes of Thundersong Trumpeter and Viashino Fangtail and it goes absolutely berserk. This card is also a great splash into the G/W token archetype as it’s essentially an Overrun when you play it with a bunch of Saprolings out.
Instill Furor
Here’s my tech card for the week, and it seems to constantly go late in draft as well.
This card is simply amazing in R/W, killing annoying Drift of Phantams, Benevolent Ancestors, or Tidewater Minions that get in your way. It has the added bonus of killing any creature your opponent controls in combination with Thundersong Trumpeter, as you just make that creature unable to attack.
Very worst case scenario here you can put it on a 3/3 and make it run into a bigger guy or something. Strong removal for the archetype and it’s way more than just a Word of Blasting.
Screeching Griffin
I’m still not 100% on this, but I’m starting to think I like this guy more than the Conclave Equenaut in the archetype. The ability is on him is very useful and he can be used to finish the job if your opponent manages to stabilize. The real deciding factor though is that he only costs four mana.
I think the decision between these guys will matter a lot on how many four-drops you already have, as well as how committed you are to going straight R/W. If you think you may have to switch into G/W, I’d go with the safer pick of the Equenaut as he is still fine in R/W and amazing in G/W.
Frenzied Goblin
A few people were really questioning me on this one when I took it over Boros Guildmage first pick in pack three in the decklist I provided above (Boros Guildmage tabled somehow). This guy actually may be better than Trumpeter if your deck is really aggressive, since he still gets in for a point of damage while making someone unable to block. The thing you have to realize though is that he will be quickly stopped if your opponent can get multiple guys out and you can’t “clear the way” for him with Trumpeters and his ability.
A great card nonetheless, and one that doesn’t get enough respect.
Veteran Armorer and Nightguard Patrol
I really like the Armorer. Don’t even get me started on what happens if you get multiple copies or combine it with Oathsworn Giant. Armorer is one of the better two-drops you can get for the archetype, though I’d still take Legionnaire and Trumpeter and other things like Arc or Faith’s Fetters over it.
Nightguard Patrol on the other hand is no Kitsune Blademaster. He’s still going to be playable most of the time and he’s good at holding off token armies, but he can’t really get through any of the good defensive ground creatures in the format and overall isn’t spectacular. I’d prefer to just take a Signet over this guy and try to play a strong four-drop on turn 3 instead.
Sabertooth Alley-Cat
Now this is a three-drop that I can really warm up to.
This guy has the annoying drawback that he has to attack every turn, but in most of my R/W decks, I will usually have a low enough manacurve that I can support the two mana a turn to make him essentially unblockable. Just be careful and don’t cast him on turn three if you can’t afford to pay the ability as you’ll just be wasting him. I’d also recommend siding him out against Blue if they have some of the Defenders that can stop him unless of course you have some Instill Furors as well.
Faith’s Fetters
There has been some discussion among my CMU playtest group that this card may actually be better than Galvanic Arc. While I’m not going to pick a side just yet, I think it’s something that is worth thinking about as it is harder to “fizzle” the effect of the Fetters and the Fetters can also stop lands and other permanents. Obviously the card is very strong, but how does it compare to Arc? Thoughts?
Boros Fury-Shield
This trick is simply amazing.
If you remember back to CBS and were fortunate enough to play with Shining Shoal at some point, you’ll be able to see the similarities that it has with this card. Not only can this card allow you to win a crucial fight during combat, but it can also be used to finish off an opponent who has gotten low in life from the initial rush as you can just send one of his fatties right back at his head with it. A great trick and I like to have one in all of my R/W decks.
Final Notes on the Archetype
There are a lot of different ways you can go with the R/W deck as exemplified earlier in the two decklists I posted. Usually you’ll want to lean towards being aggressive, but slower strategies based around utility creatures and fliers can also work just fine.
My advice is to go into the deck if it seems open, but I wouldn’t go about forcing anything. If you open a nice R/W card like Lightning Helix or something, I’d take it but also be fully willing to switch out of it if it didn’t look like the color combination was going to be open. I’m also very open about switching into the deck if it looks like nobody in front of me is drafting it. The reason for this is that it’s really bad to be drafting it directly behind someone and only picking up the scraps. While this is usually true with any color combination, it’s so crucial to get a number of the key commons that with R/W I’d be even more cautious about this and only go into the deck if I can find a good spot in the draft to do so. I’d also say not to be afraid to play some dorks in the deck like Sell-Sword Brute or Viashino Slasher, as they are much better than they look on paper.
See you next week.
Nick Eisel
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Soooooo on MODO