Welcome back to our daily dosage of deck. Today’s article is a companion piece to my regular column. You should go read it first, then come back here. I’ll wait…
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Okay, for the rest of the article, I am going to assume that you read The Kitchen Table and now are heading over here for more of your Abe fix. Well, lucky for you I have discovered something amazing. Many have wondered why there are only three Guildpact precons instead of four. There were four initially, and I have found the missing Guildpact precon!
In today’s article, I mention that I think the quality of recent preconstructed decks has diminished. It’s not enough to merely attack… why not build one of my own?
This precon will use all of the established rules for building. I’ll include two rares from Guildpact. Similarly, twelve uncommons will make their way into my deck, although I can include a few from Ravnica, if I prefer. Lastly, the common pool should feature Guildpact, although, again, I can dip into Ravnica. Also, I shouldn’t run a “four-of deck,” but instead should introduce players to a variety of cards. I should also allow room in the precon for improvement.
That’s a lot of rules, but I am ready.
We have a multicolor set, and I can’t believe that we don’t have a five-color precon. Well, its time to fix that… let’s go!
2 Civic Wayfinder
2 Farseek
2 Silhana Starfletcher
1 Wild Cantor
The first thing I need to do is fix our mana. These seven commons should help us develop our manabase. We also have five creatures here, so we have a nice group of guys already.
The next thing I want to do is choose my rares. I figure that these will be a pretty significant part of my precon. I don’t want to choose uber-rares for my precon, but I want them to work and be worth it. After some consideration, I have my two rares:
1 Giant Solifuge
1 Sword of the Paruns
The Sword is playable despite the colors that I draw, and with these little creatures running around, equipment could be quite handy. The Giant Solifuge is easy to cast and quite powerful.
Okay, I have my rares down, plus a selection of seven commons that will develop my mana. What next? Next, we find some uncommons from Guildpact to round out my deck:
1 Mortify
1 Daggerclaw Imp
1 Electrolyze
1 Frazzle
1 Schismotivate
1 Scorched Rusalka
1 Vedalken Plotter
These seven uncommons add a lot of my deck. The Imp gives us a nice sized flyer. Frazzle adds a surprise countermagic element to the deck. Electrolyze and Mortify are both powerful removal spells. Scorched Rusalka and Vedalken Plotter add interesting creatures to the mix. Schismotivate, although not a great card, adds an interesting surprise. Plus, there need to be “poorer” cards in the precon.
I add a few Ravnica uncommons to the mix:
1 Nullmage Shepherd
1 Perilous Forays
1 Recollect
The Shepherd fits a need, the Forays add more land searching, and the Recollect is just a nice card. I now have space for two more uncommons, but I’ll wait until I finish up our deck to see what holes I have left.
Now it’s time to add some commons to the deck:
1 Absolver Thrull
1 Blind Hunter
1 Crystal Seer
1 Izzet Chronarch
1 Ogre Savant
1 Ostiary Thrull
1 Shrieking Grotesque
1 Steamcore Weird
1 Tin Street Hooligan
2 Wildsize
This selection of commons focuses on creatures. Eleven commons are added, including nine monsters. I also tossed in a pair of Wildsize, just to add some tricks to the deck. These creatures emphasize various abilities that could prove quite useful to the Five Color Precon.
I now have room for four commons, twenty-four lands, and two uncommons. Let’s see what I want to do:
I begin by adding another Wild Cantor to the deck.
I then throw in the following commons:
1 Disembowel
1 Sundering Vitae
1 Terrarion
Now I need two more uncommons:
1 Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree
1 Selesnya Guildmage
For my 24 lands, I choose:
8 Forest
3 Mountain
3 Island
3 Plains
3 Swamp
1 Gruul Turf
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Selesnya Sanctuary
1 Izzet Boilerworks
Here is the total decklist:
Creatures (21)
- 2 Civic Wayfinder
- 1 Nullmage Shepherd
- 1 Selesnya Guildmage
- 1 Absolver Thrull
- 1 Blind Hunter
- 1 Crystal Seer
- 1 Daggerclaw Imp
- 1 Giant Solifuge
- 1 Izzet Chronarch
- 1 Ogre Savant
- 1 Ostiary Thrull
- 1 Scorched Rusalka
- 1 Shrieking Grotesque
- 2 Silhana Starfletcher
- 1 Steamcore Weird
- 1 Tin Street Hooligan
- 1 Vedalken Plotter
- 2 Wild Cantor
Lands (25)
Spells (14)
There’s your missing Guildpact precon! It has twenty-one creatures plus a couple of ways of making more. Somebody should build this and see how it plays against other precons. I hope that you enjoy it!
Until Later,
Abe Sargent