First Impressions of Ravnica

Today, my package of Ravnica stuff came. It consisted over a few preconstructed decks, and of course, the Ravnica Fat Pack. There are many false impressions in Ravnica and Selesnya Conclave is one of them. Since I had never played around with Convoke rules before this, I was shocked to find that some of these costs might actually have been undercosted, despite the fact that they are all obscenely high. Most casual players are likely to single out Boros as true beatdown and aggro, with efficient weenies, the now legendary Lightning Helix and radiating spells. This is actually a very false impression. Few decks can stand up to Boros-themed decks, but I believe even fewer can stand up to something like Selesnya-themed decks. Among the preconstructed decks, I believe the Selesnya deck is the weakest and needs the most work to get it up to par with the others. There is so much needed to make the deck work better, fast are more efficiently.

I myself have tried building a Boros-themed deck with nothing but what was in two boxes of the preconstructed Boros decks. The deck was constantly capable of dropping one or two creatures every turn without fail, and beating down on opponents quickly is usually a matter of time with cards like Rally the Righteous and Lightning Helix. Of course, this deck falls short as I haven't put in sensible equipment. Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion is amazing since you can literally pound your way through if needed with a measly looking Guildmage or Flame-kin Zealot.

The biggest surprise was actually Selesnya. By putting in a few cards from boosters, and Doubling Season, the Selesnya-themed deck is a powerhouse, churning out obscenely large creature at an unimaginable rate. This massive burst also renders Scion of the Wild, the rare included with the deck, absolutely indispensable as the unstoppable large attacker when blessed with the Conclave's Blessing aura which makes it nearly impervious to damage. It'll be no surprise when I get Phytohydras that finding solutions to it will become a big problem.

The guild lands, despite their huge tempo drawbacks, are actually pretty good in their own way. They provide a long-term mana advantage, since only one card can produce two mana, you can reach higher mana levels faster. This means the game can be seriously accelerated towards the huge drops. Ravnica seems to be all about speed, and I believe Boros and Selesnya embodies those elements. In my next article, maybe I'll talk about the 'slower' guilds: Golgari and Dimir.

Casual Decks

What actually defines a casual deck? For one, a casual deck shouldn't be based on any form of tournament deck. Of course, it's not entirely impossible that a casual player would stumble upon a supremely powerful archetype during deckbuilding. Is a casual deck necessarily cheap? No. In fact, I might have probably built physically one of the most expensive casual decks to date. It's difficult to pinpoint what kind of deck is actually casual any more, but I believe that there are only few very clear rules: 1. Isn't based on a successful deck archetype. - To me, this means anything at the current time and before that. Actually, casual decks could still be based on deck archetypes, and still not be too competitive to be fun.

2. Wins in the most interesting or fun way possible. - Some casual decks have normal ways of winning, but certain combinations of cards (like in preconstructed decks) can lead to some really fun and close matches. Some casual decks just try a fun way of winning - Mycosynth Affinity, Spiritcraft, Panoptic Mirror, some obscure combo.... and so on. Competitive wins are generally unstoppable to casual decks, with some exceptions, of course.

3. Should have a net worth of below USD100 if possible. :D - Well, it has to be capped somehow. I don't think it's correct to call any deck running 4 Wrath of God, 4 Umezawa's Jitte and 4 Cranial Extraction anywhere close to being casual.

4. Can adapt easily to a multiplayer environment. - This is one of the few things people keep forgetting out of casual. Most casual decks are designed to handle both variations of player environments with ease. Hah. Some casual decks don't - making this rule a gray spot, but most casual decks should have no problem - meaning that the deck you play doesn't trade off resources too quickly for gains.

There are many forms of casual decks, and some of them even go up to become supreme rogue decks at tournaments after some tweaking. Of course, I believe that most casual decks are actually also peasant decks.