As is often my habit, instead of playing in the Guildpact prerelease I helped to run the event. Playing in the tournament is sure to give some solid impressions, but the way I always kick-start my thought processes is by watching a large number of people testing a large number of theories and ideas when playing with the new cards. The better way to do that is to watch instead of play. Considering that we have only so many weeks before the Pro Tour Qualifier circuit kicks up in high gear, it seems pretty important to get past first impressions into a solid understanding of the cards, and getting some solid hands-on experience is the best way to go about that.
The funny thing is, the only experience I’m claiming to have is the experience of digesting large quantities of information to distill into some useful form. If you’re going to stick with me for more than one column here on Free Friday‘s tournament-Magic analysis, you’ll have to get used to watching (and hopefully joining along in!) the process of turning swathes of information into tiny pearls of wisdom. That’s my bag, baby. The only reason I’ve ever give for anyone to do so is that I’ve a knack for wrapping my head around formats: giving out solid hints as to what’s actually going on.
I got two triple-Guildpact drafts under my belt over the weekend, and one Ravnica-Ravnica-Guildpact draft in the day after the pre-release, but in my two Guildpact-only drafts I concentrated on:
a) Playing with the cards, and
b) Drafting myself a dual land.
The level of seriousness was not at its absolute highest. The Ravnica Block draft was more useful as a tool, but then I got the Blue-Black deck you always want, out of two packs of Ravnica instead of the usual three. It’s not indicative of how things work. Instead, I’m content to live vicariously through others for the purpose of discussing Guildpact’s impact on Limited, most specifically Sealed Deck, because I did get to witness some few hundreds of sealed decks opened over the weekend, with the only difference being one additional pack of Guildpact.
That extra pack can be a sticking point, but from seeing the two sets interact I think I can point out a few trends that are going to start appearing once Guildpact starts mixing it up.
Gone should be the days when 80% of the good decks are Golgari-Selesnya hybrids, just because Green creatures loom larger than others and playing two out of the four available guilds tends to maximize your quality cards. You will still be trying to maximize your quality cards, and you will still be playing three colors barring the most unusual of exceptions. You will not, however, be stuck with “just” two-guild bridge decks spanning from Boros to Dimir, because you can now use three of the seven available guilds with your three-color decks.
Boros-Gruul-Selesnya, better known to some as Red/White/Green, has a deep set of colors and a good shared focus on beatdown creatures and ending the game quickly. Selesnya-Orzhov-Golgari, better known as White/Green/Black, was formerly the effective default setting for Ravnica Sealed Deck because those three colors (and two guilds) had the deepest average card pool overall. W/G/B now takes a solid focus on board advantage and sacrifice tricks, coming with a lot of options and room to outmaneuver your opponent, while also being three of the deepest colors in their respective sets.
Your other options are all three-color combinations limited to two guilds, such as Black/White/Red (Orzhov-Boros) or a solid Draft favorite so far, Blue/Black/Red (Izzet-Dimir).
Players are astoundingly good at figuring out what is worthwhile in Limited, even if they aren’t always the best at cracking that same nut for Constructed play. It doesn’t take a genius to know what’s valuable to Limited, since it’s usually different iterations of themes we’ve seen before, and it comes down to fatties, removal, evasion, tempo, and card advantage in one way or another. Power cards are easy to spot, because they do one of those jobs very well, or perhaps more than one. Tricky cards are harder to peg, especially ones that seem to have fit an entirely different classification than is usual, or are a little too hard to figure out. So far it looks like Guildpact is pretty spot-on for Limited play, with two out of the three guilds seeming very clear-cut in power level, with the hardest nut to crack being the Izzet simply because no one knows how they are supposed to play out quite yet. The Orzhov are complex, but they use a more complicated means of going about things than we are used to seeing. The Gruul are about as straightforward as they come. There really aren’t too many surprises, but I do know of at least one.
Everyone I spoke to agreed that a card I thought was good was actually terrible — possibly because they kept running into difficulty using it properly or because it is a difficult card to maximize the payoff. Even at that, though, we’re still talking about a 2/2 for three, and one with some dangerous potential: Orzhov Euthanist.
Orzhov Euthanist — 2B, Creature — Human Assassin
2/2. Haunt. When Orzhov Euthanist comes into play or the creature it haunts is put into a graveyard, destroy target creature that was dealt damage this turn.
This thing screams “two-for-one,” killing two different creatures regardless of size so long as you put in the legwork to make it happen. Sure, sometimes it can take a lot of work. Other times, just try declaring attackers first and things will take care of themselves nicely. The difficulty is that this doesn’t work terribly well with the rest of the Orzhov guild, really wanting to get paired with a Viashino Fangtail or even better a Wojek Embermage to do its dirty work for it. It’s Guildpact, and now you’ve met the first member of the Cult of Rakdos, the Black/Red guild we’ll be meeting in a few months’ time. The key is in controlling when this creature dies, and when the creature it haunts dies, but there seem to be plenty of different ways to sacrifice a creature for fun or profit that this doesn’t seem too hard to accomplish. I drafted an Izzet deck in one of my two triple-Guildpact drafts, and I splashed for three of these enthusiastic killers, with two Rusalka for timely sacrifices and at least one each of Pyromantics and Electrolyze. It was a vicious, vicious beating. (And yes, I did just say ‘vicious’ twice…)
I’m sure more undervalued cards will appear as time goes on — after all, most people still haven’t figured out the ridiculous insanity that is Mark of Eviction. This one, however, is one I felt needed to be officially outed, since many prerelease players looked at it and told me they thought it was a steaming pile of manure. When I look at this humble 2/2, I see a tankful of gas, and all I hear is the lamentations of their women. More on Guildpact and its hidden gems as more drafting is done, but keep your eye out for anything with Haunt and means to sacrifice creatures, like Caregiver or the cycle of Rusalka. Most of these cards are stronger than people give them credit for, because they have excellent synergy together.
Okay, you can still dismiss Starved Rusalka as a piece of garbage. Gaining life is still bad, even when it lets you control the haunting action that is going on.
…
Having had a bit of a warm-up on Guildpact Limited, my friend Warren ran the prerelease for me as a test subject on Ravnica-Guildpact Sealed Deck. Noting the contents of one pack worth of cards, to be extracted from his Sealed Deck to give us a PTQ-style card pool, Warren donated his cards for the writing of this article after he just missed out on winning some extra packs at the tournament itself. Unfortunately any conclusions we make about what he should have played won’t look quite like the deck he did play, because that third pack had all the Gruul a boy could love, starting with Burning-Tree Shaman and keeping going strong with tricks, removal, Bloodthirst men and a pack chock full of everything that Red/Green wants to be when it grows up. Without that pack, things look quite different:
White:
Faith’s Fetters
Benediction of Moons
To Arms!
Chant of Vitu-Ghazi
Suppression Field
Dromad Purebred
Divebomber Griffin
Benevolent Ancestor
Absolver Thrull
Shrieking Grotesque
Blue:
Stasis Cell
Telling Time
Compulsive Research
Infiltrator’s Magemark
Train of Thought
Vacuumelt
Gigadrowse
Snapping Drake
Vedalken Entrancer
Hunted Phantasm
Grayscale Gharial
Steamcore Weird
Black:
Brainspoil
Necromantic Thirst
Necromancer’s Magemark
Golgari Thug
Sewerdreg
Roofstalker Wight
Restless Bones
Red:
2 Pyromantics
Shattering Spree
Smash
Fencer’s Magemark
Viashino Slasher
Sparkmage Apprentice
Goblin Spelunkers
Tin Street Hooligan
Sabertooth Alley Cat
Skarrgan Firebird
Green:
Gather Courage
Dryad’s Caress
Wurmweaver Coil
Ivy Dancer
Bramble Elemental
Skarrgan Pit-Skulk
Silhana Ledgewalker
Starved Rusalka
Greater Mossdog
Transluminant
Gruul Scrapper
Artifacts:
Golgari Signet
Gruul Signet
Lands:
Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
Golgari Rot Farm
Orzhov Basilica
Selesnya Sanctuary
Selesnya:
Phytohydra
Boros:
Lightning Helix
Thundersong Trumpeter
Rally the Righteous
Golgari:
Gaze of the Gorgon
Golgari Guildmage
Shambling Shell
Dimir:
Glimpse the Unthinkable
Lurking Informant
Consult the Necrosages
Perplex
Twisted Justice
Orzhov:
Mourning Thrull
Agent of Masks
Castigate
Gruul:
Streetbreaker Wurm
Izzet:
Izzet Chronarch
Electrolyze
This is a pretty weak card-pool by most standards, being light on removal outside of Red/White and having a difficult time getting a decent creature base. It does have one power rare leaning us in an unusual direction, that being Glimpse the Unthinkable, but if you look at the combined quality of the Blue and Black creatures you’ll soon see just why it’s ‘unthinkable’ regardless of how much support you get with the Informant and Entrancer. White, Red, and Green are the three deepest colors here, so barring anything unusual we’ll be forcing those into a functional Sealed Deck. Weeding out the cards we aren’t interested in playing at all, we get the following:
White: (6)
Faith’s Fetters
To Arms!
Divebomber Griffin
Benevolent Ancestor
Absolver Thrull
Shrieking Grotesque
Blue: (9)
Telling Time
Compulsive Research
Infiltrator’s Magemark
Train of Thought
Vacuumelt
Gigadrowse
Snapping Drake
Vedalken Entrancer
Steamcore Weird
Black: (3)
Brainspoil
Sewerdreg
Roofstalker Wight
Red: (8)
2 Pyromantics
Fencer’s Magemark
Sparkmage Apprentice
Goblin Spelunkers
Tin Street Hooligan
Sabertooth Alley Cat
Skarrgan Firebird
Green: (8)
Gather Courage
Wurmweaver Coil
Ivy Dancer
Bramble Elemental
Silhana Ledgewalker
Greater Mossdog
Transluminant
Gruul Scrapper
Artifacts:
Golgari Signet
Gruul Signet
Lands:
Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
Golgari Rot Farm
Orzhov Basilica
Selesnya Sanctuary
Boros: (3)
Lightning Helix
Thundersong Trumpeter
Rally the Righteous
Golgari: (3)
Gaze of the Gorgon
Golgari Guildmage
Shambling Shell
Dimir: (3)
Glimpse the Unthinkable
Lurking Informant
Consult the Necrosages
Orzhov: (3)
Mourning Thrull
Agent of Masks
Castigate
Gruul: (1)
Streetbreaker Wurm
Izzet: (2)
Izzet Chronarch
Electrolyze
First thing first, we should figure out where we have permission to go a little crazy, and that means looking at the mana fixers. With the lands alone, we have B/W, G/W and G/B fixers, so a deck that is G/B/W is going to have three dual lands fixing its mana. Green/Black and Green/Red also have a Signet available to fix their mana, but as far as Farseeks or Civic Wayfinders we have nothing to help us cheat with our colored mana producers. Sadly, we do not have permission to go crazy and play a ‘Best Of’ Sealed Deck, instead limiting our colors to three and working accordingly. White has six cards you’ll actually be pleased to have, Black has a mere three, while Green and Red both have eight and Blue a whopping nine. G/W has no playable gold cards, the other three Ravnica guilds have three gold cards each, as does Orzhov from the Guildpact guilds. Izzet gets two, and Gruul gets a mighty one. Of those, four are guild-mana cards, so you have an additional four virtual Black cards, two of which are Green and one each for White and Blue. Just playing by the numbers, trying to get to twenty-two or twenty-three cards, we see the following:
Blue + Black = 15 (18)
Blue + Red = 19 (20)
White + Green = 14 (17)
White + Red = 17 (18)
White + Black = 12 (15)
Green + Black = 14 (16)
Green + Red = 17 (19)
Blue/Red is the most fertile card-pool, followed by Green/Red and White/Red, and supported by Blue/Black not too far after (though you do have to stretch to get there). White/Green, Green/Black, and White/Black all have a shallower pool to work from, and given the strength of some of the other bombs we have available they are at best support guilds. This means we realistically have two decks to consider: Black/Red/Blue and Red/White/Green. We should also check in with Green/White/Black to make sure it’s substandard before we dismiss it out of hand.
Of course, it’s not necessarily obvious how I’m coming to this decision without citing individual power cards to try and build your deck around. Right now I’m just running by the numbers, which supplements what you would do and how you would think about this card-pool if it was all spread out in front of you on a table. The card pool that has the highest number of playable cards should be looked at, regardless of what your bombs are, and you should look at anything that seems like it could be compelling. Not every option will be… because we’ve used some liberal interpretations of ‘playable’ here, when Roofstalker Wight isn’t exactly exciting in a deck with no Blue mana. Combining these into masses of three guilds, we see the following:
U/B/R — 28 Potential Playables
U/R/G — 31 Potential Placables
U/R/W — 30 Potential Playables
U/B/W — 26 Potential Playables
B/G/W — 24 Potential Playables
B/W/R — 25 Potential Playables
G/W/R — 31 Potential Playables
… and of course, following up from my last article, you could always be crazy and go off-guild, but that’s pretty difficult to do here, since you have seven guilds instead of three to consider and the only “truly” off-Guild thing you could do would be Selesnya plus Blue — taking one guild and finding the disjointed color. To be connected in no way at all you have to be the color with two guilds in the third set, that being Blue with the Simic and the Azorius. Green/White is poor to begin with, and your best Blue cards like some other colors of mana to help out, so we’ll just exclude any off-guild options.
To identify the “on-guild” options, start with any one color and choose a guild that is attached, and pick any other guild attached to that second color. Wash, rinse, and repeat and you will learn that there are ten choices. With seven guilds in play we also end up with seven connected options, because we are missing those three bridge guilds to create new connections.
Looking at White/Green/Black, cramming in every possible ‘playable’ including Roofstalker Wight with no Blue mana, and maindeck Ivy Dancer, we have no real wiggle room because we are lacking cards to play around with. If we cut one card, the deck looks like this:
1cc:
–
2cc:
Lurking Informant, Golgari Guildmage, Mourning Thrull, Transluminant, Silhana Ledgewalker, Roofstalker Wight
3cc:
Benevolent Ancestor, Shrieking Grotesque, Shambling Shell
4cc:
Absolver Thrull, Greater Mossdog, Gruul Scrapper
5cc:
Sewerdreg, Divebomber Griffin, Agent of Masks, Bramble Elemental
Spells:
Brainspoil, Faith’s Fetters, Castigate, Gather Courage, Gaze of the Gorgon, To Arms!, Wurmweaver Coil
For mana, you have one each of the guild-lands and a Golgari Signet, all good despite the fact that you will be playing a completely even split. The mana curve is okay, the color balance is terrible, and we really aren’t getting anything back for committing to these three colors… we have reasonable creatures but nothing backbreaking, a mediocre plan and bad removal for answering our opponents’ game-plans. Seen, noted, and dismissed. The shame is, this is spanning three guilds instead of two, so this is supposed to be one of the deeper options.
For the next three-guild concoction, we look at White/Red/Green.
1cc:
–
2cc:
Mourning Thrull, Transluminant, Silhana Ledgewalker, Thundersong Trumpeter, Tin Street Hooligan, Sparkmage Apprentice, Golgari Guildmage
3cc:
Benevolent Ancestor, Shrieking Grotesque, Goblin Spelunkers, Sabertooth Alley Cat
4cc:
Absolver Thrull, Greater Mossdog, Gruul Scrapper
5cc:
Divebomber Griffin, Bramble Elemental, Streetbreaker Wurm
6cc+:
Skarrgan Firebird
Spells:
Lightning Helix, Rally the Righteous, Faith’s Fetters, To Arms!, Gaze of the Gorgon, Gather Courage, Wurmweaver Coil, Fencer’s Magemark, 2 Pyromantics
This gives us twenty-eight cards, and permission to cut five for color or power considerations. I’d say cut as many Green things as you can, plus Fencer’s Magemark, and see what’s left. The five definite cuts are Bramble Elemental (double-Green), Golgari Guildmage (double-Green), Silhana Ledgewalker (underpowered, third color), Fencer’s Magemark (power reasons), and Wurmweaver Coil (double-Green, despite being a late-game bomb). This gives us:
1cc:
–
2cc:
Mourning Thrull, Transluminant, Thundersong Trumpeter, Tin Street Hooligan, Sparkmage Apprentice
3cc:
Benevolent Ancestor, Shrieking Grotesque, Goblin Spelunkers, Sabertooth Alley Cat
4cc:
Absolver Thrull, Greater Mossdog, Gruul Scrapper
5cc:
Divebomber Griffin, Streetbreaker Wurm
6cc+:
Skarrgan Firebird
Spells:
Lightning Helix, Rally the Righteous, Faith’s Fetters, To Arms!, Gaze of the Gorgon, Gather Courage, 2 Pyromantics
This leaves eleven White mana in our spells, six Green mana (plus one green ability on another card), and thirteen Red mana (not counting the strong desire to Replicate our Pyromantics). We have a Gruul Signet and Selesnya Sanctuary to help with colored mana, and if we can squeeze in Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion… that’s a bonus. With a color split like this we really can’t force the funky lands, unless we consider it as a spell, thus replacing the weakest off-color card left (either Gruul Scrapper, Transluminant, or Gaze of the Gorgon) to fit in an eighteenth mana source. We’ll leave this unfinished and come back to it, however, because for the most part it’s unimpressive, and the mana is appalling. We’ll keep it in mind, but remember that we can probably do better than this.
From here on in we are looking at just two guilds per deck, but hopefully one of these will suggest themselves as playable. Sticking with White/Red for the moment, we add Blue/Red to see what happens:
1cc:
–
2cc:
Thundersong Trumpeter, Sparkmage Apprentice, Tin Street Hooligan, Mourning Thrull, Lurking Informant
3cc:
Benevolent Ancestor, Shrieking Grotesque, Goblin Spelunkers, Sabertooth Alley Cat
4cc:
Absolver Thrull, Snapping Drake, Vedalken Entrancer, Steamcore Weird
5cc:
Divebomber Griffin, Izzet Chronarch
6cc+:
Skarrgan Firebird
Spells:
Lightning Helix, Rally the Righteous, Electrolyze, Faith’s Fetters, 2 Pyromantics, To Arms!, Compulsive Research, Telling Time, Stasis Cell, Train of Thought, Gigadrowse, Vacuumelt.
This gives us twenty-nine cards, and if we play Gruul Signet and Selesnya Sanctuary instead of Mountain and Plains we can pay the activation cost on Tin Street Hooligan, giving us both maindeck artifact and enchantment removal. We need to make some cuts, and can lose To Arms!, Mourning Thrull, Shrieking Grotesque and Divebomber Griffin as we try to minimize our White spells. We keep Lightning Helix, Rally the Righteous, Thundersong Trumpeter, Absolver Thrull, Faith’s Fetters and Benevolent Ancestor as our only White cards, with twenty-five cards in the deck. Telling Time can go next, as the next color to minimize is Blue. The choice comes between cutting Stasis Cell, Train of Thought or Gigadrowse. Of those three, Stasis Cell is the one that is generally accepted to be a bad card, and so out it goes. Our twenty-three cards are:
1cc:
–
2cc:
Thundersong Trumpeter, Sparkmage Apprentice, Tin Street Hooligan, Lurking Informant
3cc:
Benevolent Ancestor, Goblin Spelunkers, Sabertooth Alley Cat
4cc:
Absolver Thrull, Snapping Drake, Vedalken Entrancer, Steamcore Weird
5cc:
Izzet Chronarch
6cc+:
Skarrgan Firebird
Spells:
Lightning Helix, Rally the Righteous, Electrolyze, Faith’s Fetters, 2 Pyromantics, Compulsive Research, Train of Thought, Gigadrowse, Vacuumelt.
The land base here would be Gruul Signet, Selesnya Sanctuary, two Plains, seven Mountains, and six Islands. Looking at this, with some very difficult mana choices to be made, we’d need to go back and re-tune this deck, likely cutting the powerful Blue replicate spells that we can’t support (Gigadrowse) for something that may help with our mana consistency (Telling Time).
Still starting with White/Red, we can follow onward into Red/White/Black, but it’s pretty sad once you do.
1cc:
–
2cc:
Lurking Informant, Golgari Guildmage, Mourning Thrull, Thundersong Trumpeter, Sparkmage Apprentice, Tin Street Hooligan, Roofstalker Wight
3cc:
Benevolent Ancestor, Goblin Spelunkers, Sabertooth Alley Cat, Shrieking Grotesque
4cc:
Absolver Thrull
5cc:
Sewerdreg, Agent of Masks, Divebomber Griffin
6cc+:
Skarrgan Firebird
Spells:
Lightning Helix, Rally the Righteous, Faith’s Fetters, To Arms!, Brainspoil, Gaze of the Gorgon, 2 Pyromantics, Castigate
We have to cut two cards from the deck, leaving us with a deck clogged with bad two-drops and very little reason to put these two guilds together. This isn’t the worst plan (that was probably G/W/B) but it’s pretty bad. Again, Gruul Signet and Selesnya Sanctuary are making it in to power Tin Street Hooligan, as is Orzhov Basilica to help your mana. It’s still not worth this pile of deck, though.
We have two decks left to look at, those being Blue/Red/Green and Blue/Red/Black. We have one option we’d be fine with (Blue/Red/White) and a few we’d rather not have to look back on, so let’s see where these next two considerations take us and compare them to the current leading option. As long as we’re talking about the Red and the Black together, let’s figure this one out by moving into the other Red/Black archetype.
1cc:
–
2cc:
Lurking Informant, Golgari Guildmage, Mourning Thrull, Roofstalker Wight, Sparkmage Apprentice, Tin Street Hooligan
3cc:
Sabertooth Alley Cat, Goblin Spelunkers
4cc:
Steamcore Weird, Vedalken Entrancer, Snapping Drake
5cc:
Sewerdreg, Izzet Chronarch
6cc+:
Skarrgan Firebird
Spells:
Gaze of the Gorgon, Brainspoil, Electrolyze, 2 Pyromantics, Stasis Cell, Compulsive Research, Telling Time, Gigadrowse, Train of Thought, Vacuumelt, Consult the Necrosages, Glimpse the Unthinkable.
This gives us twenty-seven cards, and we’re torn between beating down and milling the opponent. Unfortunately, we’re without the tools needed for controlling the game through a strong defense. Said defenses apparently include Sabertooth Alley Cat in your plan, which is perfectly fine when you’re aggressive but pretty bad when you’re not. The Black is so thin that there is no comparison to U/W/R: it’s literally miles away from being anywhere near as good. This gives us one last deck to look at, Blue/Red/Green.
1cc:
–
2cc:
Tin-Street Hooligan, Sparkmage Apprentice, Lurking Informant, Transluminant, Silhana Ledgewalker, Golgari Guildmage
3cc:
Goblin Spelunker, Sabertooth Alley Cat
4cc:
Snapping Drake, Vedalken Entrancer, Steamcore Weird, Greater Mossdog Gruul Scrapper
5cc:
Streetbreaker Wurm, Izzet Chronarch, Bramble Elemental
6cc+:
Skarrgan Phoenix
Spells:
Electrolyze, 2 Pyromantics, Vacuumelt, Train of Thought, Gigadrowse, Compulsive Research, Telling Time, Stasis Cell, Gaze of the Gorgon, Gather Courage
Again, we have twenty-eight cards to work with, and in this case it’s easy to cut five: Bramble Elemental and Golgari Guildmage, for being double Green; Transluminant, Silhana Ledgewalker, and Gruul Scrapper for not being up to snuff. That gives us:
1cc:
–
2cc:
Tin-Street Hooligan, Sparkmage Apprentice, Lurking Informant
3cc:
Goblin Spelunker, Sabertooth Alley Cat
4cc:
Snapping Drake, Vedalken Entrancer, Steamcore Weird, Greater Mossdog
5cc:
Streetbreaker Wurm, Izzet Chronarch
6cc+:
Skarrgan Phoenix
Spells:
Electrolyze, 2 Pyromantics, Vacuumelt, Train of Thought, Gigadrowse, Compulsive Research, Telling Time, Stasis Cell, Gaze of the Gorgon, Gather Courage
Finally, we have a solid-looking cast of cards — if we can look at Stasis Cell without laughing too hard, that is — and the mediocre Blue/Red creature base is complemented by Green fat and combat tricks. We need to measure this up against the Blue/Red/White deck, and it seems to me the comparison is not that favorable. Both use Blue/Red, and are taking advantage of some of the most powerful cards you have to work with, but adding White instead of Green gives better cards overall without sacrificing too much in the way of consistency. The Blue/Red cards were very good, but so were the White/Red, and getting all three at the same time seems to be the solution to this complicated puzzle. The U/W/R deck had at least one significant shortcoming, though, in terms of mana consistency… and with greedy Replicate spells and the lack of on-guild mana fixing lands or Signets, we need eighteen mana sources: a full seventeen lands plus a Signet.
1cc:
–
2cc:
Thundersong Trumpeter, Sparkmage Apprentice, Tin Street Hooligan, Lurking Informant
3cc:
Benevolent Ancestor, Goblin Spelunkers, Sabertooth Alley Cat
4cc:
Absolver Thrull, Snapping Drake, Vedalken Entrancer, Steamcore Weird
5cc:
Izzet Chronarch
6cc+:
Skarrgan Firebird
Spells:
Lightning Helix, Electrolyze, Faith’s Fetters, 2 Pyromantics, Compulsive Research, Train of Thought, Gigadrowse, Vacuumelt, Gruul Signet.
Lands:
4 Plains, 6 Mountain, 7 Island.
This is eighteen mana sources: seven each in our two main colors, and four Plains. The White splash is a little heavier than usual. With seven of each of our main lands, we’re are a little mana-hungry for extra colored lands, but the hope is that Compulsive Research and Train of Thought will power up the extra Red needed to make Pyromantics truly impressive. The extra Blue is needed for consistency’s sake, and to make best use of the card drawing, Gigadrowse, and Vacuumelt, because an Undo at twice the price is still perfectly worthwhile…
Stasis Cell is a key sideboard card against fatties, as large creatures can only be answered with Faith’s Fetters — or by trying to hold them off — and we won’t be proud of it but we will remember it. A good Green deck can be a problem, since we have a hard time dealing with large creatures, but there is no other solution within our card-pool
Rally the Righteous went to the sideboard because it is the weakest remaining White card for the strategy. It was replaced by a land, though the audacious among us can try playing Telling Time there instead. My thinking here is that extra lands are not dead draws with four Replicate spells, so there is no need to try and ‘get lucky’ with Telling Time performing the same duties.
This deck is a little schizophrenic, as can be seen with the possibility of leading with turn two Lurking Informant and following up with Sabertooth Alley Cat. Alley Cat is a good evasion creature later in the game, while Lurking Informant is excellent at stealing games of attrition from an opponent.
Our ability to outright attack the opponent is weak, but the board control elements are very strong, and are backed up by a touch of the Millstone kill. We don’t need to break through walls to finish the game, as a stalemated board leads to your inevitability in winning the game no matter how solid their defenses may be.
This week, I left off a decent portion about how to build a good Ravnica/Guildpact Sealed Deck mana base, as the sample sealed deck did not really give us a good example of how to do this. The deck we ended up with is very powerful, but doesn’t have good mana… instead, it is trying to supplement that by having good enough mana, and solid card-drawing elements to smooth it out when it wants to draw more Mountains and Islands.
Next week, on top of further tricks inherent to Ravnica/Guildpact Sealed Deck, we’ll discuss getting to the point when looking at your cards, as well as squeezing every inch out of your mana base.
— Sean McKeown
— [email protected]
“What if all the world’s inside of your heart, just creations of your own;
Your devils and your gods, all the living and the dead;
And you really are alone…
You can live in this illusion, you can choose to believe;
You keep looking but you can’t find the words…”
— Nine Inch Nails, “Right Where It Belongs”