Whenever a new set appears on the scene, we have the invariable naysaysers. Y’know, those folk who’d gripe and grouse even if presented with the Moon on a Stick.
“These cards are underpowered! Oh for the days of Urza’s Block!”
“Mirrodin is full of broken artifacts! Don’t Wizards test anymore?”
“This set isn’t exactly what I demand without compromise, therefore it is completely useless.”
Another famous complaint goes something like this…
“OMG!!!!!11!!one! Wizards are making our decks for us! The game is doomed for sure!”
Indeed, if we look back at a few of the more recent blocks, we can see that a number of the Tier One contenders of the day were driven by the overriding mechanic of the set. In Odyssey, we had the might of Madness, with all the Blue and Green love that entails. Onslaught, while not quite as obvious, made true use of the Cycling mechanic with cards such as Astral Slide and Lightning Rift. Mirrodin gave us a fun mechanic called Affinity for Artifacts, which in turn spawned a powerful-yet-balanced deck called “Affinity.” Though this deck wasn’t widely played, it had a few decent results at low-level events, which was nice to see.
Some of the above is sarcasm, by the way.
In pushing the strength of block-relevant mechanics, it is easy to see why people hold such opinions. If the most powerful deck of the day is intrinsically tied to the newest and shiniest mechanic, maybe Wizards actually are making our decks for us.
So here we are, in the cities of Ravnica… is a similar pattern emerging?
Well…
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
In Ravnica, Wizards are pushing multicolored play. To do so, they’ve divided this first set into four Guilds, each guild dealing with an appropriate pair of colors. Each Guild also receives a mechanic, and the obligatory slew of double-color cards of power and playability. It seems, at first inspection, that Wizards will reward those players willing to explore within the Guild boundaries much more than those attempting a more freewheeling experimentation.
In Ravnica, are Wizards “making our decks for us?”
Probably.
But at least this time, they’re making four of them.
…
Today, I’ll be looking at the Green/White Selesnya Guild, exploring a few possibilities of deck design, and offering up two or three deck-lists from which we can expand. But first, I’ll take a look at some of the important cards we’ll be up against once the Metagame is a little more defined. This will hopefully bear fruit when we come to building and assessing decks later in the article.
1) Putrefy
This instant-speed creature-killer, doing double duty on artifacts, is one of the more powerful removal spells to date. It is housed in a popular color combination, probably the most popular pairing in the game, and it embraces all the fundamentals of a Green/Black “Rock” style card: it is versatile, cheap, and has a low level of redundancy. It’s also one of the few removal spells today that deals a fatal blow to a regenerating creature. It will see much play.
2) Lightning Helix
Two mana, three damage, six-point lifeswing… it’s all good. One of the most exciting burn spells for a long time. In a pure aggro deck, available through the Red/White Boros faction, this card will be devastating. I’m only glad that we’ve no Isochron Scepter to worry about…
A 2/5 blocker for three mana has its uses, to be sure… but add on the three most important words in Magic – Draw A Card – and you’re sure of a success. While most walls (sorry, “defenders”) usually allow a horde to swing into them while remaining intact, the two power on the Caryatid will dissuade all but the most aggressive weenie army.
4) Umezawa’s Jitte
Of course. While not from Ravnica, this card will still turn games in a second. We’ve nothing new to say here.
The above list is by no means exclusive. There are many many cards in Ravnica that’ll warp the metagame and shape our choices. Only time will tell what we need to be truly wary of, but at least we’ve made a start.
Onto the decklists!
First up, we have the Obvious Deck.
When I first saw the Ravnica spoiler, the beatdown mage that dwells in my heart took a long look at a certain 3/3 for two mana, and began jumping for joy. When I attended the prerelease last week, I found more folk looking to trade for Watchwolves than anything else. I asked them why, and their answers were eerily similar:
“It’s such a great weenie creature! White Weenie, splash Green! That’s the way forward!”
White Weenie, the perennial deck-choice of the Magical Veteran, is currently a workable, powerful strategy. It’s only fitting to see what the new set brings to the table.
Obvious.dec
4 Lantern Kami
4 Suntail Hawk
4 Selesnya Guildmage
4 Leonin Skyhunter
4 Hand of Honor
4 Watchwolf
4 Glorious Anthem
4 Blessed Breath
4 Pacifism
2 Shining Shoal
10 Plains
2 Tendo Ice-Bridge
4 Brushland
4 Temple Garden
2 Vitu-Ghazi, the City Tree
I’ll not supply a sideboard for any of these decks, as I feel doing so would be largely redundant. I will, of course, run through some possible dangers and possibilities that need consideration when planning a final 15-select.
So, let’s examine some of my more debatable choices. If you agree or disagree, come to the forums and we’ll thrash things out.
4 Lantern Kami, 4 Suntail Hawk
In the pre-Ravnica metagame, there were two distinct Weenie schools of thought. The first took to the skies with Kami and Hawk, while the second rained Cats and Dogs with Savannah Lions and Isamaru, Hounds of Konda. I think that the evasion will be important post-Ravnica, as we have the Carven Caryatid to consider. Also, the formative weeks of any new format usually sees the creature decks out-performing their more controlling counterparts (as aggro is, on the surface at least, a “simpler” path of construction than the more exacting control archetype). For me, the Kami and the Hawk are the correct choice.
4 Selesnya Guildmage
It wouldn’t be a guild deck without the Guildmange… This guy helps the long game, pumping out uncounterable creatures, and he also serves as a mana-sink and Glorious Anthem clone to push through the final damage (and make combat a nightmare). Most importantly, he’s a 2/2 for two mana, which is the benchmark for White Weenie attackers.
4 Hand of Honor
There are many Weenies that could fill this slot. We have the Kami of Ancient Law, for example, or the Samurai of the Pale Curtain. There’s the ever-loving Eight-and-a-half-Tails, and even some weird janky guys like Kataki, War’s Wage or Sensei Golden-Tail. I’ve plumped for the Hand of Honor, as he’s immune to Putrefy and similar removal. He can also block big baddies such as Gleancrawler. Of course, if the metagame progresses toward a different point, we can re-evaluate his inclusion accordingly. I’ll dust off my Kamis of Ancient Law should the Enduring Idealists come a-knockin’.
4 Glorious Anthem
The inclusion of the Anthem is another one highlighted by two schools of thought. Some run equipment, battling it out with Jittes and Manriki-Gusaris and (historically) Swords. I myself prefer to slim down the slots devoted to such frippery and simply add a playset of the universal pump-enchantment. The Anthem is a little trickier to deal with than the artifact equipment, and its impact is less ‘obvious’ so it may well go unmolested. With the Swords relegated to the Where Are They Now file, the equipment-heavy White Weenie builds should be on the decline.
4 Blessed Breath
Again, we have options for this slot. Otherworldly Journey, Reciprocate, even Mending Hands… but I like the Breath. It offers spot protection against almost anything, including the new horrors Putrefy and Lightning Helix, and it can act as removal in combat. If board-sweepers become the norm for removal, then maybe Otherworldly Journey has more potency… time will tell here.
4 Pacifism
A full playset of Pacifism may seem a little heavy-handed, but it is entirely in-keeping with the aggro strategy, especially one revolving around quick and efficient evasive beats. The Pacifism deals with Carven Caryatid, and anything that can block flyers is negated too. Again, if creature-based strategies prove to be on the decline, then this is an obvious re-think spot.
2 Vitu-Ghazi, the City Tree
Traditionally, weenie decks suffer in the long game. After reducing the opponent to a manageable three or four life, their forces are depleted and the inevitable topdeck war is won by the control player. However, the City Tree can produce weenie after weenie, turn after turn, enabling those precious last few points of damage to be dealt. Invaluable, methinks.
Of course, there are some problems with this build. That’s what testing, and the sideboard, is for.
First, there is the problem of the Jitte. Thankfully, with both White and Green we can stock up on ways to kill it, or even run our own should the equipment war require it. Terashi’s Grasp, Naturalize, Wear Away, Manriki-Gusari… there are bounteous spoils to achieve our goals.
Board-sweeping spells, such as Hideous Laughter, have always posed problems for the weenie strategist. While cards such as Vitu-Ghazi can help this, we may need more. Manriki-Gusari helps a little, but tools such as Promise of Bunrei can also be utilized.
Okay, enough about the Obvious Deck. Let’s move on…
The problem with the White Weenie strategy is that it’s not particularly, well, Selesnyan. I know that such concerns are beyond the tournament player, as they are programmed to win, flavor be damned. Even so, I feel the most explosive beatdown deck will not be found in the hallowed halls of Green and White: I believe Boros to have the best arsenal for aggro available. So where else do we go with the Selesnya guys?
Let’s look at one of the core concepts of the Selesnyans: the creation of guys.
A number of the Selesnya Guild cards concentrate on the creation of token creatures, and the power of Convoke. To me, and to many others, Convoke seems counter-intuitive. Cast monsters, use those monsters to create more monsters, use those monsters to create more monsters… at what point it time do you win the game? If you’re tapping your four guys to “convoke out” another guy, I’d say you should be swinging. If four guys can’t win you the game, what difference will the fifth make?
Still, tokens are fun, and they can overrun. Also, they ignore such things as spot removal (a la Putrefy and Lightning Helix), and are largely unimpeded by blockers (a la Carven Caryatid)… let’s see where they can take us
InfiniteMonkeys.dec
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Sakura-Tribe Scout
4 Kodama’s Reach
4 Heartbeat of Spring
4 Selesnya Guildmage
4 Sosuke’s Summons
4 Umezawa’s Jitte
2 Meloku, the Clouded Mirror
2 Doubling Season
2 Recollect
1 Overwhelm
1 Congregation at Dawn
9 Forest
2 Plains
1 Island
4 Brushland
4 Temple Garden
2 Tendo Ice-Bridge
2 Vitu-Ghazi, the City Tree
Again, this deck is a starting point, an idea to be explored. Discussion and testing should be part of its progress.
In Obvious.dec, I was unimpressed by how little chance we had to utilize the funky abilities of the Selesnyan Guildmage. Usually, there’d be four or five mana on the pitch at any one time, thus making a single pump or a single chump the only possibility. InfiniteMonkeys.dec plans to change that, by creating a huge amount of mana for us to play with.
Let us look at some of the card choices, with the positives and negatives they bring us.
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder, 4 Sakura-Tribe Scout, 4 Kodama’s Reach
The mana-producers. The Elder and the Reach should be no-brainers, but the Scout may need a little more explanation. First, he enables a turn 2 Kodama’s Reach, which is an excellent boost. Second, he works wonders with Meloku, who appears down the list a little later. Third, he’s a snake. This enables the unappreciated Sosuke’s Summons to have multiple uses.
4 Heartbeat of Spring
The mana-explosion. This card turns the Guildmage into a one-man army. However, its symmetrical nature is certainly worrying. I feel it may be dangerous to allow folk so much mana while we are simply making 1/1 guys. There are probably so much more interesting things to do with such a mana mound. Heartbeat of Spring certainly helps the deck… but it may prove to be more of a hindrance. Maybe something like Sachi would work here, as she supplies mana, blockers and Summons recursion. Or maybe I’m worrying for nothing. What do you guys think?
4 Selesnya Guildmage, 4 Sosuke’s Summons
The heart of the deck. Tokens tokens tokens!
4 Umezawa’s Jitte
If we’re making lots of little guys, what better way to increase the pain? The Jitte is an auto-include in such a deck, although I was tempted with both Glorious Anthem and Coat of Arms here. I believe the Jitte to be correct, however: it helps against other Jittes too, and it works well with the Doubling Season (more on which I’ll discuss later).
2 Meloku, the Clouded Mirror
If we’re making tokens, why not go with the Daddy? To be honest, I’d like more Melokus if possible, as he’s a wondrous creature that wins all by himself. I think this number will increase in testing, probably at the expense of some of the more “janky” cards yet to come.
2 Doubling Season
Speaking of janky… what do you think? At first, I thought this card would be excellent. Guildmage makes two guys per activation, Summons makes four, Jitte gets four counters per hit! Excellent stuff. However, I feel it may be little more than a “win-more” card, appearing on the board a couple of turns after it is needed. Again, I think we should give this card the respect to test it, but I think it may be ditched upon closer inspection.
1 Congregation at Dawn, 1 Overwhelm
Again, I feel these may be a little janky. The Congregation is a nice tutor, to a point. He acts as the all-important fifth Guildmage, or third Meloku, and can stack your draw to a possible win if needed. The Overwhelm acts as an “I Win” card, of which you’ll never need more than one. The Convoke is largely irrelevant, as the high mana cost of the card shouldn’t be a problem in any Heartbeat-fuelled game. So… the cards both serve a purpose, but are they truly relevant? Would these be better served with Meloku/Recollect number three? Time will tell.
The deck creates tokens, and wins with token overrun. Therefore, we can be pretty clear on the strategies that can destroy us, and take any appropriate measures necessary to neuter these.
It is clear that our token generators are of utmost importance. This means we must protect our Sosuke’s Summons from graveyard removal, and our Selesnya Guildmages from creature removal. While the graveyard removal is largely unavoidable, we hope to see little of it (dependant on the viability of Dredge in constructed, so we must be vigilant here). As for creature removal… we can bring in cards such as Blessed Breath, Indomitable Will, Otherworldly Journey. We can even go all-out with Privileged Position, should we feel the need.
Enchantment removal may hinder our progress, but that’s by-the-by (and stopped by Privileged Position, yay!).There are a few enchantments and artifacts that may worry us. There’s Night of Soul’s Betrayal, for example, able to negate our plan for four mana. While Reverence is nothing to worry about, a card like Ghostly Prison may be, and a card like Jitte certainly will be. Options are open, of course. Naturalize, Wear Away, the usual suspects… but I like Seed Spark. At four mana, it may be a little expensive, but it fits with the theme of the deck.
There are many other ideas and cards available for experimentation in this token-generating build. Glare of Subdual, perhaps, or Selesnya Evangel. If beatdown is a problem, then the Carven Caryatid is a solution. If it’s removal you fear, then the Promise of Bunrei offers respite. Also, I would dearly like to try Pollenbright Wings, but I fear I’m being silly. Nevertheless, we have something from which to discuss and build.
InfiniteMonkeys.dec has a plan: to create many tokens quickly, with a minimum of fuss, and then beat down appropriately. While brainstorming it, checking out the options available to me, I couldn’t rid myself of one particular card combination… Eventually, I succumbed and explored the idea further, hoping to come up with something a little more adaptable than the earlier beatdown and token-crazy offerings. A deck that could offer solid early beatdown potential, merging into a more inevitable, token-generating plan for the late-game. Something more appropriate for the Selesnya Guild than mindless attacking and mindless man-making.
So here it is.
TrollFist.dec.
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Sakura-Tribe Scout
4 Selesnya Guildmage
4 Sosuke’s Summons
4 Hunted Troll
3 Matsu-Tribe Sniper
3 Fists of Ironwood
4 Umezawa’s Jitte
2 Recollect
2 Meloku, the Clouded Mirror
2 Doubling Season
11 Forest
2 Island
1 Plains
2 Yavimaya Coast
4 Temple Garden
2 Tendo Ice-Bridge
2 Vitu-Ghazi, the City Tree
Again, it’s a work in progress, a springboard from which we can leap.
While the main tenets of the deck should be blindingly obvious, let us go through some of the card choices.
4 Hunted Troll, 4 Fists of Ironwood
An 8/4 regenerator for four mana? Insane. Couple that with a two-mana enchantment that both grants a creature permanent trample and creates two 1/1 saprolings, then we’re onto a winner. Sure, there are downsides: spot removal is a bumming, and the four 1/1 flyers received by the opponent is a definite clock, but an 8/4 trampler is hard to argue with.
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder, 4 Sakura-Tribe Scout
Our mana production plant is a little limited here. To me, the choice here was between the Sakura-Tribe Scout and Kodama’s Reach. While the Reach is certainly effective, I believe the scout to be the correct choice. We still have Sosuke’s Summons, and we still have Meloku. The inevitability of token-creation is still important in this deck, as the Hunted Troll plan is significantly easier to disrupt.
3 Matsu-Tribe Sniper
This guy takes care of the flying tokens granted to our foe via Hunted Troll. He also has other uses, such as returning a Summons from the graveyard, and miscellaneous flyer-removal. Remember, chumping with him generally removes the attacker from combat for two turns. Of course, the question is this: do we really need something to deal with the four 1/1 flying tokens? And if so, isn’t Trophy Hunter a better choice? We have options, and avenues to explore.
2 Doubling Season
While the other deck choices are self-explanatory (the Guildmage, the Jitte, the Recollect…), the Doubling Season again rears its head like a tranquilized horse. Is it worth the effort? I’d like to think so, but again, only time (and testing) will tell. I can see this card being dropped for more Melokus or Snipers or Recollects.
While this deck is the most versatile of the decks presented, I also believe it is the most vulnerable. Putrefy, and other spot removal, negates the Hunted Troll advantage, and the token generation plan is slowed considerably from InfiniteMonkeys.dec. It does, however, have a deal of raw power with which to play.
It suffers, again, from direct removal. While the regeneration is nice, it doesn’t hold off everything. Spells such as Blessed Breath, again from the sideboard, should hold off any Putrefy shenanigans.
TrollFist.dec is also susceptible to the early aggro attack from beatdown decks. Carven Caryatid can help here, buying valuable time in which to get token blockers on-line and chumping. It may also be necessary to invest in some mass-removal, with Plague Boiler being available with a minimal tweak to the mana-base.
…
Thus concludes today’s look at some possible directions decks based on the Selesnya Guild. As usual, I hope you’ll come to the forums and share your ideas. I am still currently vacationing in Florida, but I hope to get a chance to read and respond.
Selesnya is a guild with a great deal of brute strength, if little to recommend in the arena of guile and cunning. Nevertheless, I hope that the deckists I’ve provided demonstrate that there are options available to those willing to search them out. While Convoke is, arguably, the weakest of the new Guild-themed mechanics (for Constructed play at least), there are definitely more paths available to the dedicated Green/White mage than at first meet the eye.
Until next time…
Thanks for listening.
Craig Stevenson
[email protected]
Scouseboy on MTGO