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.