Sealed Revealed 4: Ravnica/Guildpact Cardpool #2

It’s nearly Pro Tour Qualifier time for me. I’ve two to attend this coming weekend. Of course, I’ll only need to go to the first of these, as I’ll have a Blue Envelope by Saturday night.

How I wish my bluff and bluster were believable.

The thing is, I’ve been to six Pro Tours now. Houston, Venice, Chicago, New Orleans, San Diego, and London. Three Constructed, three Limited. I’d love to tell you that I made Day 2 for each of them… but I’d be lying.

I know that some, if not most, of our readership don’t give two goddamn hoots about the Big Show — or at least, that’s what I believe from reading the furore over the Pro Player cards over at MagicTheGathering.com

For me, however, it’s always been about the Main Event.

Sure, I love casual games: I play Type 4 every Thursday. I also tend to crack any boosters I may win unseen, shuffle up some random land and play fun games off the top. But through it all, the call of the Pro Tour keeps me coming to the table, demanding I hone my game and polish my skills.

I want to get back there, you see.

I’ve been to six. But six ain’t enough.

Sealed Revealed is my attempt to learn, and to teach, and to qualify for the One True Kahuna. It’s my ticket. My passport. My desire.

Come with me, share my ride.

And if you can’t be arsed with that, there’s bound to be a knob-joke or two.

…

Here we are… Sealed Revealed 4. Card Pool number two. How long have I been doing this? Years? Crazy.

You know the drill by now. ‘Tis the season, and all that.

Insert cards here. Not your own, mind. That’s illegal.

Sealed Revealed Card Pool Two

Craig Stevenson

Test deck on 02-26-2006

Ravnica Limited

Creatures (39)

Lands (3)

Spells (32)

Now take up a pen, and go build. Of if you like, click on a link, and cyber-construct.

I’ll be waiting after the dots.

…

What did you make o’ them onions? Is the Green once more my master? Has Blue the gumption to draw me into its slimy web of lies and deceit?

Answers to this, and probably not much else, lie within.

Pray silence please, for the Electric Light Orchestra…

…

White

We’ll start, as is my wont, with the White cards of Ravnica. As usual, I will give a paragraph to these, before moving to card-by-card analysis of the Guildpact goodies. I know some of you will miss my Veteran Armorer porn-star moustache jokes, but we have given him enough coin, and he has given us enough booty.

The Ravnica White
Talking of your friend and mine, we will start with the Armorer. I am always happy to see him in any pool (apart from my municipal swimming pool, because, hey, that porn moustache gives me the creeps). Sandsower at four mana is a super spirit and a poor man’s Glare of Subdual. Rounding out the playable fellas is the frankly piss-poor Courier Hawk: he flies, he’s vigilant, and would rather not play him. As for unplayables, there is the slavering Gate Hound, who is distinctly underwhelming, and the Ghosts of the Innocent, who are guilty of being crap.

Moving on to spells, the first is Boros Fury-Shield. If we play Red, we include this excellent combat trick. Our other offering, Leave No Trace, has excellent art, but is strictly sideboard fodder.

The Guildpact White
So far, so not so good. White hasn’t exactly polished my doorknobs thus far, with only four pure White cards coming from Guildpact, I don’t expect to be getting the Brasso out just yet.

For King And Country!

Four mana gives us the super-haunty Absolver Thrull. A 2/3 body is passable for the mana cost, and the enchantment destruction effect surprisingly playable in the current environment. He’s a Thrull Cleric, which should please some of you madmen out there, but I still don’t get the big hoo-hah about the return of this once-loved creature-type. Give me creature-type badger any day.
Skyrider Trainee, who resembles an evil Buckbeak, is a 3/3 ground-pounder for five mana. Nothing special, but it’ll get the job done. I prefer my winged lion beast creatures to have unconditional flying abilities. If given the choice, this trainee will stay back at school.
The White spells are as unimpressive as the creatures thus far. We start with Guardian’s Magemark, a three mana instant speed permanent creature booster. Meh. There are better Magemarks than this weak offering. I also find the art particularly disturbing, depicting, as it does, a man trying to storm what appears to be a lady’s “private area”. At least he’s got a big stick.
In Withstand, a three mana Healing Salve, we have nothing that floats our boats… until we read the magic words “draw a card”. Anything with a cantrip effect bears a second look in Limited, and I have played this as my twenty-third card. Unlike the art, it didn’t set me on fire.

Sadly, the White in this pool is anaemic, almost albino. Little men, little spells, little chance of winning. I know I love the White cards, but there had better be some good stuff in the guilds otherwise I’m going to Rosewater’s house to wee in his flowerbeds.

Selesnya G/W
There are four Selesnyan cards in this pool. Two of them are fantastic, one is excellent, and one is merely acceptable. For Limited play, Selesnya Evangel is my favorite common in the set. Selesnya Guildmage is my favorite uncommon is the set, and Guardian of Vitu-Ghazi is my favorite… umm… 4/7 monster with weird leafy knives for hands in the set. That’s the thing with the Selesnyans — they are a binary guild. They have two modes, on and off. Tiny, tiny creatures, or massive ridiculous behemoths. Any guild that attacks people with trees has to garner some respect. Rounding out the Selesnyan pool is the mulletted horse, Centaur Safeguard. Opponents are loathe to block him, as he trades far above his weight, at the least, he’ll gain life and draw removal… not bad for three mana.

Orzhov B/W
Word up, you ‘tards! Fear the new cards!

From Orzhov we have received two cards. While the size of the meal wouldn’t satisfy an anorexic giraffe, the quality is Michelin Five Star standard. The creature is the eponymous Blind Hunter. Four mana for a 2/2 flyer is decent enough — add to this a four point lifeswing when he hits the board (plus another when the haunt effect is satisfied), and you’d have to be blind to disregard this hunter. I know he’s a bat, and his blind hunting skills are explained away by sonar… I just think it would be cool if Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder had similar feral ferocity.
Moving on to our spell, we have Guildpact Pacifism — Pillory of the Sleepless. Of course this card is good… an Aura that prevents attacking and blocking always is. I do miss the “prevent activated abilities” clause that we have become accustomed to with Faith’s Fetters, but beggars can’t be choosers. Unless they’re choosing what soup kitchen to eat at.
We also have an Orzhov Basilica common, a Karoo land blessed by the might of John Avon’s incredible artwork.

A manabase with strong foundations

Boros R/W
Both the Selesnya and the Orzhov guilds have been good to us. We’ve not had much, but the cards we did receive are filling. In Boros, however, we have zip diddly-squat. Yeah, there’s a Boros Garrison, but you can’t win games with land alone. Not even Monopoly — you need houses and hotels for that.

Overall, White is tantalising. The base White cards are thin on the ground, as are the cards in the guilds, but I’d be remiss not to point out that there are some tasty sweetmeats to be had. In this three-color environment, we may have legs… but like Christopher Reeve, they’re not exactly supportive.

I am bored of the White cards, let’s move on to eeeeeeeeviiiiiiiiil.

Black

As we know, Black is the color of removal. Sure, Red can kill things, but direct damage is much messier than the target of destruction of Magic’s darkest cousin. However, while Black gives us removal in spades, its creatures are usual skeletal thin, losing most fights with squirrels, saprolings, and the occasional leprechaun.

The Ravnica Black
Yay! We have a Last Gasp! That means we’re open to a splash for Black at the very least. Unfortunately, we’ve no Disembowel, no Ribbons of Night, and no Brainspoil. In fact, our only other spell is the diabolical Shred Memory… although the Shredster can Transmute and fetch the Last Gasp if necessary (plus you’ve got to love the artwork — a screaming Vin Diesel getting his head peeled like a Satsuma).

We have two creatures spread over three cards in this pool’s Ravnica Black battalion. The first, Sadistic Augermage, is a 3/1 for three, which isn’t terrible… but he won’t win you the game. Also, his on-death ability can be rather annoying at the wrong times. Our other creature sees us with double duty of the six mana pseudo-finisher, Netherborn Phalanx. A 2/4 for six is hardly Daddy’s Special Beans, but he’s golden against the token generators of Selesnya. And in this pool, we can Transmute the normal one to fetch our foil one, adding much needed bling to an otherwise dull game.

The Guildpact Black
Last Gasp is great. Do we have its mate?

Yes we do! We have two copies of Douse in Gloom! Go Craig, go Craig, it’s your birthday, it’s your birthday! Traditionally, whenever confronted with double duty of excellent playable commons, I have penned a little poem to celebrate the fact: today will be no exception.

Bombs a poppin’ with a boom!
Send your monsters to their tomb!
We’ve got spells to seal your doom!
We’ve got double Douse in Gloom!

Heh. Ain’t that peachy?
Douse in Gloom is great… then we hit Cremate. This one mana cantrip is fine as a sideboard answer to a pesky Dredge card (Moldervine Cloak and Stinkweed Imp spring to mind), but I’d rather not play it unless being forced at knifepoint. Cremate = not great.
The Leyline Cycle is not for Limited play. While Leyline of the Void is a fine answer to constructed graveyard shenanigans, it’s not worth the slot in our forty cards of funk. The flavor text reads, “where treachery and oblivion converge”. I think they’re talking about McDonalds.
Moving on to the creatures, we have the three mana cheeky flyer, Daggerclaw Imp. A 3/1 flyer for three is outstanding value. So what if he can’t block — Black creatures are about as useful for blocking as Michael Jackson is for babysitting. This guy gets the job done, even if he does trade with the tiniest flyers known to man or beast. And look at his claws! He must have a hellish time fitting his contact lenses.
Poisonbelly Ogre! Rarg! He’s an ogre warrior with a belly like Buddha. A 3/3 for five is a respectable beatstick, though I’d much prefer it if he flew… but with a lardy ass like that, it’s unsurprising that he doesn’t take to the skies very often. His Wretched Anurid clause is a double-edged sword, though it can be surprisingly effective against the token-toting hippies of Selesnya.

Black brings us removal, and good removal at that. Double Douse is great and Last Gasp is lovely. Couple these with the Pillory of the Sleepless from Orzhov (and maybe the Blind Hunter) and maybe we’re getting somewhere. Not somewhere terribly exciting, but somewhere we might go if the rest of the pool dictates.

Dimir U/B
We’ve one offering from the Dimir delicatessen today. If you believe the hype, Lurking Informant is the best thing since sliced bread. Wormtail and Theoden in perfect harmony, even if Theoden does look like a bearded wedding cake. Apparently, my girlfriend thinks he looks like the priest from The Little Mermaid. Being the manly man that I am, I have not watched that particular piece of Disney propagandist filth. I am sure you girly-girl Little Mermaid fans out there can confirm/deny this in the forums. Back to the practicalities of this lurker berserker… he cleans up your draws and helps screw/flood your opponent at the same time.

Golgari G/B
Nothing? What, not even a Shambling Shell? No Golgari Rotwurm? Hell, not even unplayable Golgari cards, like Bloodbond March and Woodwraith Strangler… Grrrrr! It’s clobberin’ time!

Overall, the Black gives us great splash potential, but while some of its creatures are playable, it lacks any strength in depth. A dearth of White guys, a barren Black offering… I hope the other colors produce some, you know, creatures.

Blue

Will someone please tell me how to evaluate Blue? When I look at the other colors I can see decent cards and strong synergies. When I look at the Blue cards, I can pick out the powerful spells and creatures, but I have trouble identifying the level at which the inclusion of Blue becomes a no-brainer. This pool, for example, has Peel from Reality, Halcyon Glaze, Tidewater Minion, and Flight of Fancy… is that enough?

The Ravnica Blue
I’ll start with a two mana 2/1 flyer. See that Drake? He’s familiar! The Drake Familiar needs Auras to become special — without them, he can be a nightmare. Thus far, this pool has provided little in that regard. Sure, it’s nice to bounce an opponent’s Glare of Subdual, especially if you can Induce Paranoia it on the way back down… but without enchantments of your own to abuse, this guy is sour bum-grapes. Tidewater Minion, the thinking man’s seaweed, is a tricky defender with attacking options. Much like Veteran Armorer, his untap ability is often overlooked by players of questionable talent (not me, oh no, I’ve never fallen for it, honest guv’nor). Sadly that’s it for guys, but I’m not one for Island-based bastards. We have a fake guy, the excellent Halcyon Glaze, but without mates to power him up he’s nothing but a pretty picture with a silver symbol. Peel from Reality is a fine card, especially with guys like Steam Core Weird and Izzet Chronarch. It’s a marquee common in the Blue arsenal. Flight of Fancy, while depicting a big-nosed gimp with wings, is very playable. Drawing two cards is always good, unless you are doing it illegally in your draw step (in which case, expect Sheldon to get medieval on your ass). Induce Paranoia is counter-magic for the milling strategy, and thus evil on many levels… if this pool had a Vedalken Entrancer, then it would be a shoe-in. The only other playable is Stasis Cell, and that’s as slow as a sloth playing chess. Flow of Ideas is passable with multiple Terraformers, and Mnemonic Nexus is passable if you’ve no idea how to play Magic.

So, is that good enough? Utility, card draw, counter-magic, blokes?

Even if it is, I don’t think I’ll be playing Blue.

The Guildpact Blue

We’ll start with the five mana Crystal Seer. Like most Blue cards, he’s not exactly rarg — he’s more oooooh (insert twinkly noise here). He’s expensive for a functional Sage Aven, and with enough mana, he’s practically an indestructible blocker… but I wouldn’t bet my house on him. He spends all his time playing with crystals. He really needs to get out more.
Flametongue Kavu was a four mana staple. Steamcore Weird threatens to be the same. He’s only 1/3, but his damage can be dealt to a player instead of a creature, if needs be. However, he requires a semblance of Izzet strategy, so is not quite all that and a bag of grits. I haven’t actually had grits, but apparently they’re quite nice. If they’re anything like crumpets, then count me in.
Lalalalalalalalalalalalala Torch Drake! A funky flyer with horrendous halitosis, this late game topdeck can end the contest in a single swing — given enough Red mana. A 2/2 flyer for four mana is hardly shabby, and the fire-breathing is icing on the feathered cake.
Vertigo Spawn is a card. It serves a purpose. It can be found in boosters. As for uses, it has one — clog up the ground. Why this ground-based defender has anything to do with vertigo, I’ll never know. He holds off small attackers, but looks damn silly when stood in front of a Golgari Rotworm. I’ll play him, I suppose.
Frazzle is counter-magic, and thus has no place in the Limited environment. It’s also conditional, but I suppose it serves a purpose from the sideboard when facing a non-Blue game-breaking spell. On the plus-side, it’s named after a well-known brand of English crisps (crisps are sidewalks to you Yankee-doodle-dandies).
Runeboggle. Say it with me… Rrrrrrrrrrrruneboggle! The best spell to say since Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. Counter-magic. Cantrip. Next.

So, adding this to Ravnica Blue… is this good enough? The Seer, the Weird, the Drake? Does Blue draw us in? I hope not, as I value my soul.

Izzet R/U

If I read another “Irish/Scottish Wee Dragonauts” joke, on this site or any other, I’m going to stab someone in the face. Probably myself, to end the tedious pain. He flies, he’s hellish to cast, but he can get randomly big. If sufficiently pumped, he’ll all be over you like a powerful moss.
We have a Signet… or Izzet? See what I did there? I cracked a Joke! I took the name of the guild, see, and replaced the words “is it” with it! I am teh funnay! Yeah, you play the twiglets if you can.
Nivix, Aerie of the Firemind. Long name. Crap card. Fine as a new name for a fourteen year old emo goth skater punk pseudo pagan wannabe. The female version of Tolsimir Wolfblood, in name if not in power level.

The Izzet’s rubbish, isn’t it? We need a Chronarch. We haven’t got one. Niv-Mizzet is turning in his dragony grave. Except, you know, he’s not actually dead. Come to think of it, he’s not actually alive. He’s fictional.

In the end, the Blue is just scary. Come to the forums and tell me if I should be playing it.

Red

While I’m marooned in Blue, I’ve got cred with Red. I loves me some Red spells, I do. Unfortunately, Ravnica Red was the, well, red-headed stepchild of the Magic Brady Bunch. Sure, it’s taken a belt-whipping in the past during other blocks, but I was hoping that Guildpact would give it a backbone. Ah well, we might as well go through the motions.

The Ravnica Red
Well, we have a Galvanic Arc, so things ain’t all bad. We also have a Cleansing Beam, which is usually fantastic, but randomly hideous. Other than that… slim pickings indeed. The Rain of Embers is a situational Selesnya hoser, with ludicrously brilliant artwork, and Surge of Zeal is nothing more than a canker on a bishop’s left buttock. As for the creatures… nothing. Oh, there’s something, but they are mostly idiots. One mana brings us War-Torch Goblin, which is the best of a very bad bunch. Greater Forgeling is passable, but he randomly dies at the most inopportune of moments. And let’s face it, the artist has a Balrog fetish. When the two remaining guys are Viashino Slasher (a limp lizard with a poncey headdress) and Barbarian Riftcutter (the back-combed glam dwarf from deepest Hades), then we know we’re in for a torrid time.

The Ravnica Red is nothing to write home about. In fact, I’d suggest that if you’re writing home about Magic in any capacity, your parents are probably quite scared.

Maybe the Guildpact Red will relight my fire. Pyromatics is my only desire.

The Guildpact Red
*examines cards*
Hrmm.
*examines cards again*
This can’t be right…
*examines cards one final time*
Arse biscuits!

Nothing. Zip. Nada. Zilch. Zero. Emptiness. They say one is the loneliest number. They’re wrong, zero is the loneliest number. Except zero’s not a number. Anyway, how the hell can a number be lonely? I think we should leave the anthropomorphization of math behind us, because it’s rather silly.

Gruul R/G

Wild Cantor is a one mana speed bump in the late game, but can accelerate out a third or fourth turn fatty, if seen early on. We have two of the little buggers. I’d rather have a reusable source of mana acceleration, but the tattooed, green-haired harridan will do in a pinch. I bet that hair color’s not natural. It’s got home dye kit written all over it.
Three mana brings us the wonderful Burning-Tree Shaman. He’s no Naboo, but you’d best beware if he turns his back on you. A 3/4 for three is not to be sneezed at, and his pinging ability can be fantastic against the more controlling deck. Use your Lurking Informant? Sure, take one. Mill me with Entrancer, sure, take another one. Every little helps.
Next up, we have the inestimable Savage Twister. A Wrath of God effect is golden in Limited, and this one can be selective if played with skill and poise. If we weren’t splashing Red before, we’ll most certainly do so now.
Finally, there’s Wreak Havoc. “Crush them!” said Borborygmos. Well, I’m sorry, Bobby Gormless, but uncounterable artifact or land destruction will hardly smite your enemies in the Limited arena. A Constructed card, before Wizards kicked it in the happy-sack.

The Red in this pool is nothing more than a splash. That said, neither is the White, or the Black… and the Blue’s just confusing. As usual, I’m looking to Green to get me out of a miasma of hurt. In Kamigawa block, I turned tricks for the White pimp. It seems that, in Ravnica block, I’m Green’s bitch. Let’s hope Daddy’s good to me today.

Green

I’ll make no bones about it: contrary to the opinion of Mark Young, I think Ravnica Block Green is the only way to go. There are stand-out cards that we need to see, of course, and luckily, we’ve seen some of them in the guilds previously mentioned.

The Ravnica Green
What do we want in Green? In most pools, and in this pool in particular, we need mana-fixing. Luckily, we have it and then some. There’s the one mana money card — Birds of Paradise — alongside the one mana dark elf, Elves of Deep Shadow. Add a Farseek to the mix, and we’re good to go. Sure, we’d love a Civic Wayfinder, but we’ll cope with what we have. The other Ravnica creatures are utilitarian, if not spectacular. First there’s the Golgari Brownscale. While he’s not exactly Mike Tyson, his punches can come back again and again, like a boxing kangaroo (the Antipodean Killin’ Mach-eeee-yan!). His life gain can be surprisingly effective too. Greater Mossdog is indeed greater than Mossdog. This Hill Giant cannot be stopped by conventional weapons! Greater Mossdog has entered the city, deploy X-lasers!

There’s no beef in the Green stew, but we are armed with the carrots of inevitability. Maybe the Guildpact Green guys will be gargantuan. Rounding out the Green in Ravnica, we have three cards of beauty and joy, and two cards of limited detritus. We can create tokens with Scatter the Seeds, and Fists of Ironwood, and Overwhelm our opponent with, well, Overwhelm. Finally, there’s Stone-Seeder Hierophant, who looks like Linda McCartney, and Life from Loam — both of these cards have no place in our final forty.

As we can see, the Guildpact Green is workaday. Maybe I am falling into the Green Trap… but as the Blues Brothers said, if women kill me, I don’t mind dying. That made more sense when it was in my head.

The Guildpact Green
We want some meaty chunks to go with our Ravnica biscuits. Though why I’m choosing to describe my deck in terms of dog food is beyond me.

I’ll begin with Silhana Starfletcher. This guy sounds like a porn star, though if that’s the case, maybe “fletcher” is spelt wrong. He’s an Elf Druid Archer, which means he must be a very busy man. He’s the perfect compliment to our already stellar mana fixing team, and he blocks flying creatures until the cows come home. Then he chump-blocks the cows. Note: In my previous article, I mentioned the Starfletcher’s resemblance to my friend Simon. Sadly, I have not seen Simon since my last outing, and therefore am unable to confirm or deny the pointiness of Simon’s Ears. Don’t fret, I’m sure all will become clear in the Simon’s Ears department soon.
We wanted beef? We got it! The Ghor-Clan Savage may only be a 2/3 on paper, but his bloodthirst makes him a situational 5/6. In this pool, we lack evasive creatures, so his meaty ability may not come to play as often as we’d like. Even so, we’d run him in a second. On the artwork, he appears to be falling over. Maybe he has fallen foul to the Ravnican version of cow tipping.
Finally for Guildpact Green, there’s the Gruul Nodorog, the most bizarrely-named creature since Hundroog [Hundroog! — Craig, channelling the Ferrett]. This guy enables many things, first he has a form of evasion, albeit a weak one. Second, he makes a mighty fine ground stalling blocker, if needed. Third, he allows me to insert editorial comments into my own frickin’ articles, like some sort of pompous arrogant nonce. I’d play him, I think, especially with a splash of Red for Savage Twister and Galvanic Arc.

The Green’s great. Take the good stuff from Selesnya, and stick it with the beef stock of a mono-colored beatdown strategy, and we’re cooking with gas, electricity, and various petroleum-based products.

… So there we have it. My pool in all its glory.

Did you come with me on a journey through time and space, taking the Green cards and running with them? Or was the Blue too good for you today?

Here’s what I built:

Sealed Revealed Deck 2

Craig Stevenson

Test deck on 02-26-2006

Ravnica Limited

Creatures (15)

Lands (16)

Spells (9)

I took Green as my base, and sprinkled in a little Black and White. In the end, I also opted for a two card Red splash in Savage Twister and Galvanic Arc. You can’t complain at that, for power at least.

I can see the strength of the Blue in this pool, just as much as I can see the possible Trap that Green has set for me. When all’s said and done, I’m a suckah for the monstahs.

The forums are where this series takes off. Please come and make your voices heard.

Join me next time, when I’ll have a Pro Tour Qualifier Sealed Pool for your delectation. And hopefully, a Blue Envelope to go along with it.

See you in the funny papers!

Craig Stevenson
Managing Editor, StarCityGames.com