Welcome to Gatecrash Prerelease weekend! Gatecrash, as a whole, wasn’t fully spoiled until just recently. Luckily, you don’t need to wrack your brain over what guild to choose. This time, it looks like the guilds are much more balanced than Return to Ravnica. Well at least my initial impressions say that. Pick your favorites and enjoy yourself this weekend. I have outlined the strengths and weaknesses of each guild along with pointing out what commons you should be looking for. Rares are a blast to play with and can win games, but those lovely commons are what make or break a deck.

Boros

The Boros Legion is always recruiting for more soldiers to fill its ranks. Why? Well because they keep sending them on suicide missions so that one of their dudes gets the Battalion Bonus. Boros is a trap waiting to happen. Don’t force Boros just because you have a lot of cards with Battalion on it. Luckily, The commons below actually have very good buffs when Battalion triggers. Just remember this rule, if the creature sucks without Battalion, then its probably not good enough to play. Basically, play the Boros deck like its full of vanilla creatures and good red removal spells with the possibility to absolutely blow out opponents. Boros also is helped by the fact it has the biggest bombs in the set. There is not a single Boros rare that I wouldn’t play. The weakness of Boros is that is does require multiple creatures. Removal filled decks should prey upon the Boros deck.

Best Boros Commons:

Gruul

Rawr goes the members of the Gruul Clan! They riot the streets with big creatures that cost a lot and love it! Gruul will seem to rely on its red removal spells more than anything else. The Gruul deck will have enough big creatures to win games, just a question if it can make to that late game to do so. Simic, Boros, and Orhzov has the ability to come out of the gates quickly which makes a mediocre Gruul deck hard to pilot. A good Gruul deck can beat any of the other guilds best decks. The Gruul uncommons are just ferocious along with the Guild Pack rare being a absolute monster. Gruul could be the Rakdos of Gatecrash. None of their cards heavily rely on others in the deck, just like Rakdos.

Best Gruul Commons:

 

Simic

The Simic Combine is an ever evolving one. So much that its best creatures won’t be Simic exclusive! All the Evolve creatures start rather low and will require bigger creatures to trigger them upwards. So Gruul will be lending its powerful fists to make Simic a beast. If you open enough Gruul Bloodrush cards, I can see the Simic deck being able to bust open the gates with never ending creatures early and eventually overrun for lethal. Now just be ready to play a bunch of creatures and next to no removal spells for this to work. Good thing is, Simic has the fewest ways to interact with opponents. Part of me really thinks this could be the break out guild for Gatecrash. Nah, who am I kidding? Its going to be Boros or Gruul.

Best Simic Commons

 

Dimir

Welcome to the seedy underground. Everyone knows House Dimir exist but doesn’t really want to publicly acknowledge it. Same thing happens at every Friday Night Magic. There is always that one guy that loves mill. No one acknowledges him as a real threat, but deep down no wants to play him and lose. If joining House Dimir is in the blueprints , then players will be getting milled to death! Dimir has the worst creatures out of all the guilds. That even includes the Return to Ravnica guilds! So to be successful with Dimir, be ready to play every mill card opened along side with every removal / bounce / wall you have. Luckily, all the walls are blue creatures which combos with Sage’s Row Denizen very well. If 3 of that beautiful 2/3 miller appear, things might be able to go well. Though, I think in the end, it will depend on the rares for House Dimir. Having just the Guild Pack rare will not cut it.

Best Dimir Commons

Orhzov

Wealth is power in the Orhzov Syndicate. It is fitting that their Guild Mechanic is Extort, which will nickel and dime your opponent from start to finish. Sadly, there is little chance that you will sit there and extort your opponent from 20 to 0. But how will the death be brought upon the poor slobs? Orhzov has a bunch of mediocre vanilla creatures just with Extort slapped on, nothing terribly exciting. What Orzhov has going for it is its fantastic removal. Enjoy killing any creature you wish with its many unconditional removal spells. If you plan to champion the Orhzov cause, you will be wanting to open many of the commons below. The Basilica Guards will gum up the board while your fliers get damage through with your removal.

Best Orzhov Commons:

Pre-release weekend, one of my favorite times of the year. You get to gather with good friends, sling spells, eat questionable food and drink enough sugar to put you in a coma once the day has finished. The Fall set is particularly more fun for myself since it always hovers around my birthday. Believing that 60 people came to play magic with you is awesome, even though no one really cares. But there is something that could make the weekend not enjoyable, losing terribly.

Here is my Primer to get you ready for this weekend! Luckily, things have gotten easier with this pre-release since Wizards has kindly given us a better chance to not get screwed by Lady Luck. She sleeps around way too much anyway. Thanks Guild Packs!

So you start with your 5 RTR boster packs and a lovely Guild Pack of your choosing. You will want to open your guild pack first, but don’t! Its going to skew you into thinking that this is the route you want to take with deck building. Open your other 5 packs first separating by color with the multi color guild cards between the colors they are.

Example:

White: Azorius: Blue: Izzet: Red: Rakdos: Black: Golgari: Green: Selesnya

Remember what you opened that looked really good and then open your Guild Pack and slam those colors down! Hopefully you will end up playing the Guild you chose.

Once laid out, you will be looking for particular cards that will make a certain color combination playable.

 

Azorius: Azorius Charm / Lyev Skyknight / New Prahv Guildmage / Skymark Roc / Sunspire Griffin / Azorius Arrester / Arrest / Faerie Impostor / Soulsworn Spirit / Skyline Predator

Azorious is the classic Blue/White flyers deck. You need a good amount of flyers, about 6 to 8, to have the deck work. The leaders of this group is Lyev Skyknight, the guildmage, and sunspire griffin. These three will be doing a ton of work. Arrest and the other removal are always solid, but there are enough guys that can defend well to make up for any lack of removal.  The detain ability is what you are going to abuse in your deck. More likely than not, you will be detaining their only blocker in the air so you can get through. Don’t rush out your Azorius Arrester just because you can play him turn 2.

Izzet

Voidwielder / Skyline Predator / Mizzium Skin /Inaction Injunction /Goblin Electromancer / Izzet Charm / Frostburn Weird /  Annihilating Fire / Bloodfray Giant / Electrickery / Goblin Rally  / Lobber Crew / Street Spasm

Izzet fills the role of a control deck. You will want many removal spells to fill your deck along with guys that can play defense well. There aren’t many good creatures for Izzet but the ones there, are solid like Goblin Electromancer. Your finishers will be the likes of Skyline Predator or any sweet fatty you open. So you are looking for a bunch of removal, big creatures to win the game with, and a few card drawing spells to help dig for your win conditions. Just make sure to be stingy with your removal as you clog the board with good defense creatures. Take the 2 damage in the air each turn when you have Explosive Impact in hand. You are going to need it for their Rare big fatty they opened. Also, Izzet looks like the guild that will splash a third color more than any other guild. Might need to do so in order to play a good big creature as your finisher.

 

Rakdos:

Bloodfray Giant / Splatter Thug / Hellhole Flailer / Rakdos Ragemutt / Rix Maadi Guildmage / Spawn of Rix Maadi / Dead Reveler / Stab Wound

Pretty much this deck is the beat down first and always. You want to slam as many creatures with Unleash into your deck as possible, probably around 8. If you picked Rakdos as your guild, you should be able to hit that threshold easily. This will be a pretty basic 18 creatures, 7 spells, 16 or 17 lands type deck. As long as your spells are mostly removal, you should be set. Just make sure to never keep slow hands. You will want to be playing a turn 2 guy if possible every game. Turn 3 is acceptable but rarely keep a hand where your first play isn’t until turn 4. Also, Pack Rat is absurd. That and Stab Wound will be your weird late game win conditions if you somehow run out of good creatures.

Golgari:

Gobbling Ooze / Korozda Monitor / Savage Surge  / Towering Indrik / Dreg Mangler / Golgari Charm  / Korozda Guildmage / Rites of Reaping / Sluiceway Scorpion / Trestle Troll / Stab Wound

Golgari is a weird guild. It resembles Izzet as both want to get as much value out of their cards as possible. At least with Golgari you have more creatures that can finish games, thanks to the Scavenge ability.  There aren’t a lot of good creatures with Scavenge, which makes it a bit awkward at times. Luckily, Scavenge isn’t going to be the focus of the deck like Populate or Unleash could be for their respectable guilds. Dreg Mangler is the best Golgari card followed by Stab Wound and Sluiceway Scorpion. As with Izzet, you will want to stall until the later turns to win. So good defenders like Towering Indrik will be key in your deck. I think this guild has some of the best commons to help get you to your Rare late game cards.

Selesnya:

Archweaver / Axebane Guardian / Druid’s Deliverance / Slime Molding / Towering Indrik / Call of the Conclave / Centaur Healer / Selesnya Charm / Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage / Arrest / Concordia Pegasus / Eyes in the Skies

This color choice doesn’t have too many quality creatures for the early game outside of Centaur Healer and Call of the Conclave. But once you get past turn 4 you have two options with your deck. You can play big creatures and attempt to win that way or play every token making card possible. If you have multiple Call of the Conclave and Eyes in the Skies, then you are safe to Stop, Drop and Populate. I think that won’t happen too often, so you will more than likely go the fatty route. So cards like Towering Indrik and Axebane Guardian will help. I truthfully would only play Selesnya if I had multiple of these walls and centaur healers. Then you can end the game with any generic big creature or big token maker.

 

Now don’t be afraid to combine non guild colors to make your deck if need be. I could see black and blue working well together. I doubt it will be necessary since your guild pack should at least make that color combination more playable than any off guild choice. Hopefully you will open your Guild Leader and smash your opponents to smithereens.  I hope this Primer helps give you an idea what all the guilds should be attempting to accomplish, so you know how to use the guild yourself and how to fight it. Best of luck this weekend!

 

 

The latest core set, M13, has been out for a while now. A couple Star City Game events have come and passed. What was good before, is still good now. Delver and Birthing Pod variants have not left their throne as King and Queen of the format along with a Jester deck like Frites slightly behind. Its a super fun deck to play so its worthy of Jester even if it truthfully isn’t the third best deck. But shouldn’t things have changed more than what has since M13′s release?

Thragtusk was heralded as the Delver killer. He (or she since a 3/3 dude does originate from it when it passes on) does quite well gaining life back from early aggression and not going away very easily once on board. But the fact he is a Beast means he is counterable. Cavern of Souls doesn’t quite enjoy the nature much, just the divine beings of humans, angels and spirits. Plus, with all the Blade Splicers running around, Thragtusk can’t really get into the red zone easily. The current decks just aren’t primed to abuse Thragtusk to its maximum potential. Thus why only a single copy has made it into Birthing Pod decks.

The other M13 card that has made a “splash” is Talrand. I still don’t know why he is summoning drakes as a damn merfolk. Very unflavorfull Wizards of the Coast! Nonetheless, he is appearing in decks and doing sweet things! Too bad the deck is just another variant of the power house that is Delver. Sadly, he might not even last very long in the spotlight for now. I’m hearing that just making two 2/2 flying drakes immediately with Talrand’s Invocation is just better than Talrand himself. Quite the opposite of Jace’s ingenuity to Jace the Planeswalker. Yeah, that is not a fair analogy but damn it, I love Jace!

The third card seeing play is Elvish Visionary and how sad that he immediately took the place of an amazingly aggressive Strangleroot Geist? I guess in a world of Blade Splicers and Restoration Angels, attacking isn’t a winning proposition. Getting that immediate card advantage from Elvish Visionary is quite nice, especially when it gets you to a Birthing Pod or makes Restoration Angel a 3/4 Flash Flying creature with Draw a card. That is bonkers folks.

By now, you should have picked up on a pattern. Right now, every deck is playing Restoration Angel and Blade Splicer. What kind of world are we living in where the aggro decks and the control decks want the same cards?! This is the fundamental problem with Standard right now. I understand Blade Splicers are usually in the side board of Delver, but it comes in very often. I don’t want to fight against the same cards every game, regardless of what deck my opponent is playing. I can’t think off the top of my head where something like this has occurred in the past in standard. Have we become lazy deck builders? Have we conceded that Delver is powerful or that Pod is simply too fun not to play? Did we decide to just hop on the bandwagon and ride it until Return to Ravnica? It is pretty crowded in here and I want off. I haven’t had much time to test or build many decks with my busy work and social schedule so I am guilty of following the herd. I tried my hand at Naya Pod at a PTQ last weekend in Springfield, MO. The deck just wasn’t to my liking. It doesn’t do anything powerful, just seems to have consistent draws. I’m glad I scrubbed out like I did, because I got to go see Batman! Spoiler, the movie isn’t as good as hyped.

So what is there to do? I challenge everyone out there to make a deck that uses Thragtusk to its full potential and battles well against Blade Splicer and Restoration Angel. Those cards are in the vast majority of the decks, so there should be ways to beat both easily with 8 sets being legal. The answers exist out there, we just need to find. I have ideas myself that I plan on sharing soon. Just waiting on Decked HD to be updated with M13. I need to see the actual cards for me to be able to brew efficiently. I know, weird, but I can’t other wise.

Until next time, happy brewing everyone. Here is to fixing the stale standard meta. Cheers!

Twitter: @SolomeOU