Rav-Rav-Rav Sealed Competition.

Farcear

Assignment 1 - Building a sealed deck from the following card pool.

How's about this for a lil interactivity?

Here's your seled deck.

Downloadable .MWDeck file

You open your tournament pack and two boosters to find the following card pool. As many extra basic land as you want are available from the organiser sitting at the top of the room. You assignment for today, should you chose to accept it, is to build a sealed deck from the following cards and post it here.


// Artifacts
SB: 1 [RAV] Grifter's Blade
SB: 1 [RAV] Spectral Searchlight
SB: 1 [RAV] Sunforger

// Black
SB: 1 [RAV] Carrion Howler
SB: 1 [RAV] Clinging Darkness
SB: 1 [RAV] Golgari Thug
SB: 1 [RAV] Keening Banshee
SB: 1 [RAV] Sewerdreg
SB: 1 [RAV] Shred Memory
SB: 1 [RAV] Stinkweed Imp
SB: 1 [RAV] Strands of Undeath

// Green
SB: 2 [RAV] Bramble Elemental
SB: 1 [RAV] Dryad's Caress
SB: 1 [RAV] Fists of Ironwood
SB: 1 [RAV] Gather Courage
SB: 1 [RAV] Golgari Brownscale
SB: 1 [RAV] Greater Mossdog
SB: 1 [RAV] Moldervine Cloak
SB: 1 [RAV] Nullmage Shepherd
SB: 2 [RAV] Siege Wurm
SB: 2 [RAV] Stone-Seeder Hierophant
SB: 1 [RAV] Transluminant

// Gold
SB: 1 [RAV] Boros Recruit
SB: 1 [RAV] Centaur Safeguard
SB: 1 [RAV] Consult the Necrosages
SB: 1 [RAV] Dimir Guildmage
SB: 1 [RAV] Gaze of the Gorgon
SB: 1 [RAV] Golgari Guildmage
SB: 1 [RAV] Golgari Rotwurm
SB: 1 [RAV] Perplex
SB: 1 [RAV] Rally the Righteous
SB: 1 [RAV] Razia's Purification
SB: 1 [RAV] Skyknight Legionnaire
SB: 1 [RAV] Sunhome Enforcer
SB: 1 [RAV] Twisted Justice
SB: 1 [RAV] Watchwolf
SB: 1 [RAV] Woodwraith Strangler

// Land
SB: 1 [RAV] Sacred Foundry
SB: 6 [RAV] Forest
SB: 6 [RAV] Island
SB: 6 [RAV] Mountain
SB: 6 [RAV] Plains
SB: 6 [RAV] Swamp

// Red
SB: 1 [RAV] Blockbuster
SB: 1 [RAV] Coalhauler Swine
SB: 1 [RAV] Fiery Conclusion
SB: 1 [RAV] Incite Hysteria
SB: 1 [RAV] Sabertooth Alley Cat
SB: 1 [RAV] Smash
SB: 1 [RAV] Viashino Fangtail
SB: 2 [RAV] Viashino Slasher

// Blue
SB: 1 [RAV] Drake Familiar
SB: 2 [RAV] Drift of Phantasms
SB: 1 [RAV] Flight of Fancy
SB: 1 [RAV] Followed Footsteps
SB: 1 [RAV] Grayscaled Gharial
SB: 1 [RAV] Induce Paranoia
SB: 1 [RAV] Mnemonic Nexus
SB: 1 [RAV] Quickchange
SB: 1 [RAV] Stasis Cell
SB: 1 [RAV] Surveilling Sprite
SB: 1 [RAV] Terraformer
SB: 1 [RAV] Tidewater Minion
SB: 1 [RAV] Zephyr Spirit

// White
SB: 1 [RAV] Benevolent Ancestor
SB: 1 [RAV] Courier Hawk
SB: 1 [RAV] Divebomber Griffin
SB: 1 [RAV] Dromad Purebred
SB: 1 [RAV] Gate Hound
SB: 1 [RAV] Hour of Reckoning
SB: 1 [RAV] Leave No Trace
SB: 1 [RAV] Screeching Griffin
SB: 1 [RAV] Veteran Armorer
SB: 1 [RAV] Wojek Apothecary
SB: 1 [RAV] Wojek Siren



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so? Ante-up?
(Once someone else posts I'll post my own decklist.)

sephirosis

i did this in about 5 minutes but here goes.....

6 swamp
6 forest
6 island

carrion howler
keening banshee
sewerdreg
stinkweed imp
2 bramble elemental
transluminant
dimir guildmage
golgari rotwurm
drake familiar
2 drift of phantasms
surveilling sprite

clinging darkness
strands of undeath
fists of ironwood
gather courage
moldervine cloak
consult the necrosages
flight of fancy
followed footsteps
stasis cell

i was initially disappointed with the low level of removal in the pool. red was the first to go, despite the magnificent viashino fangtail the good incite husteria and the ok incite hysteria. it was too weak overall.
white was next, some good cards again (ancestor, griffin, hawk). it wasnt very deep again and i didnt see any inspiring combinations with other colours. a grand total of one boros card sisnt help white and red's cases either.
so i went u/b/g

my deck is basically creature and aura based. auras were quite strong i thought - fists, cloak, footsteps, strands, flight, darkness, stasis. and i liked the aura focused creautures (2 brambles, drake). drake is excellent with followed footsteps and bramble and/or flight and/or fists, for loads of tokens and draw. in fact with the high level of auras, getting a footsteps on the drake is almost certain win. footsteps also goes excellent with banshee, bramble, rotwurm (well ok obviously). usually it isnt stuck for ways to win.
sprite, guildmage, transluminant and drifts are solid early stalls, and even beats with the auras. removal is scant but maximised in the form of the banshee, imp, clinging darkness, stasis cell and even gather courage.
hand advantage is amintained using sprite, flight, necrosages and guildmage, whilst strands, necrosages and guildmage can hit the opponents hand, though i wouldnt use the discard abilities nearly as often as the draw.
on a final note, sewerdreg cashes in on blacks popularity in the current limited format for an often gamewinner (cloak him up!)
ok so thats me, i have to admit most of the analysis went into the daeck while i was typing this rather than actually building

MatthewVII

My criticisms of the last build are:
1) Far too few creatures for a limited format
2) Poor Removal
3) Drake Familiar is far too unreliable and mana intensive

without further ado, heres my 2cents. my first look at the card pool highlighted the following bombs:
Followed Footsteps
Hour of Reckoning
Razia's Purification
Sunforger
Moldervine Cloak
Viashino Fangtail
Keening Banshee
Skyknight Legionnaire

My original thinking was a B/G deck with a white splash, but following that through it wasnt rentsy enough, so i decided to go all out for the build that was begging to be made with the sunforger. I changed it to a R/W/G deck, fast aggro, lots of creatures and juicy siege wurms

Land:
Sacred Foundry
6x Forest
5x Plains
5x Mountain

Creatures:
Boros Recruit
Transluminant
Watchwolf
Courier Hawk
Veteran Armorer
Centaur Safeguard
Skyknight Legionnaire
Benevolent Ancestor
Golgari Brownscale
Sunhome Enforcer
Screeching Griffin
Greater Mossdog
Bramble Elemental
Divebomber Griffin
2x Siege Wurm

Spells:
Wojek Siren
Fiery Conclusion
Fists of Ironwood
Moldervine Cloak
Rally the Righteous
Sunforger
Incite Hysteria

The hardest thing about making this build was cutting out Hour of Reckoning and Razia's Purification. Spectral Seachlight would have been nice as a mana fixer but makes too little impact on the game.
Anyhow, the deck is your basic aggressive deck. It maximizes usage of this pools poor removal by playing cards like Divebomber, fangtail, fiery conclusion etc. the large amount of small creatures allow us to power up to our 2 siege wurms very quickly, and from there, cards like rally the righteous and incite hysteria can roll home to victory. The bombs in this deck are Moldervine Cloak (imho the best enchantment for limited) and sunforger. Sunforger is a great card for searching out siren, rally and incite, as well as giving a hefty power boost that has good synergy with the recruit and fliers. Watchwolf and skyknight are great for early beats, and there is also a minor dredge theme in the deck to maintain tempo in case your army should be destroyed.
Siege Wurm is a great card in this format. Its hard to deal with, and owns the late game. With so many smaller creatures, bramble elemental and fists of ironwood it will be easy to get out. Thoughts?

sionnach

independently, i ended up with the exact same deck as matthew, except using gather courage instead of wojek siren.

sionnach

MatthewVII wrote:

Anyhow, the deck is your basic aggressive deck. It maximizes usage of this pools poor removal by playing cards like Divebomber, fangtail, fiery conclusion etc.

Fangtail isn't in your deck list
I cut the fangtail for the double red cost as i'm sure you did too

MatthewVII

Yes, how silly of me, it was a last minute decision and i already had the article written. I used Wojek Siren because of better usage with Sunforger and its radiance effect (although i am aware of the dangers of boosting opposing creatures)

sionnach

in my experience a targeted +2+2 is worth more than an across the board +1+1, that has a fairly good chance of boosting opposing creatures

MatthewVII

Wojek Siren has far more synergy with the deck.
1) Works with Sunforger for a surprise pump
2) All this deck's fliers are white, hence Siren is a nice combat trick for adding punch to your flying offence
3) Works well with Rally the Righteous or Incite Hysteria for the win
4) Works well with ground creatures (mostly green) and saprolings generated from Bramble Elemental/Fists of ironwood

Also, in my experience +1/+1 across the board is almost always more useful than a single +2/+2, mostly for the processes of alpha strikes and double-blocking. So there.

Farcear

sionnach wrote:

independently, i ended up with the exact same deck as matthew, except using gather courage instead of wojek siren.

lol, so am I to assume that your build really is the 'best' deck that you can make from the pool?

foxy wrote:

in my experience a targeted +2+2 is worth more than an across the board +1+1, that has a fairly good chance of boosting opposing creatures

In constructed I'd definately agree with you. I know limited is a bit different but still the Courage:
(i) Will do a better job of keeping your tempo going. In combat the Siren will usually turn a loss into a trade but Courage can turn a loss into a win.
(ii) Has better support, if only marginal, from your mana base.
(iii) To get the most out of the Siren you will have to play it as your alpha strike card (sidepoint - why not an omega strike!?). Courage on the other hand is a much more viable turn 3/4 play.
(iv) On the negative side the convoke on Courage is almost useless in this deck and can't be searched for with sunforger. But likewise you will probably be taking Rally or Hysteria over the Siren.

sephirosis

put up another list and we'll try again and see if we get a bit more variety