Magic Jon: Return to Ravnica Game Day

Yes, believe it or not I am back. After a long hiatus I have once again assumed my role as an expert Magic player. A role that I am, of course, woefully inept at. I may have skipped M13 and the the entire RtR release cycle, but I was able to sit down with the two brand new Event Decks for the RtR Game Day!

"Did he say 'both'?" Why yes, I did.

You see, the GP-BT managed to get not one but TWO Game Days, and I was lucky enough to participate in both. While I may have done miserably in both I was at least able to see how both of the Event Decks worked and check and see if they are worth your money. For our first event we had 13 folks come to try out their standard decks. Elsewhile I was armed with the Golgari: Creep and Conquer Event Deck. The deck did a lot of creeping, but not a whole lot of Conquering.

I did not fair well with this deck. I didn’t manage to win a single game with it. Now, I’ll admit, that this likely had a lot to do with my play skill, or lack there of, but part of it was the deck. Check out the sideboard. See anything interesting in it? You know, like that Thragtusk there. That marginal Thragtusk. I mean that card is so bad it’s an edge case tech card at best. Wait a minute, no. No it isn’t. It’s running roughshod over standard. It is a four-of in every deck that can run it. What the heck is it doing in the sideboard while the erstwhile Deadbridge Goliath has made it main deck?

Odds are Thragtusk was put in this deck just to help out standard players find the card, but still. Either way my real issue with this deck was actually its 2-drop: Drudge Beetle. It’s a cute little 2/2 for 2 with Scavenge for 6. The idea behind it is that you use it as a blocker early, then late game scavenge it up on to Vampire Nighthawk to make it a frigg’n beast. Now while I like that idea in theory, do you know what I’d rather do on turn six? Cast my 2nd Thragtusk.

Sup bro

Sup

In the end the Golgari deck has a glimmer of an idea, but that’s about as far as it goes. The deck just ends up not being very competitive. Now with its host of kill spells and Vampire Nighthawk it’s annoying as all get out to play against, but it’s not winning much any time soon. That being said it does come with a Thragtusk and a Woodland Cemetery which are worth $20 and $15 retail respectively. This makes the deck a great buy for competative players who are looking for some better cards to power up their existing decks, but as a build skeleton goes this deck is simply too slow and too weak. So if you need the cards it’s completely worth the $25, but don’t look for it rock your local FNM.

All of this is in direct contrast to the second event deck: Rakdos: Wrack and Rage. I ran this deck for our second Game Day event. Our second event saw 10 folks some of whom, like myself, also played in the first event. Some people are just that dedicated to playing Magic. The Rakdos deck was just a heck of a lot more fun to run. Dudes Dudes Dudes.

Now this deck is cheap. Its just a cheap little Red deck that hopes to out race its opponent before they can stick their best cards…you know…like Thragtusk. Sure, you don’t have any “money cards” but who needs them when you can just whack who ever you’re facing with creatures and then burn them the rest of the way out?  I do question the use of Knight of Infamy in the deck but eh, it’s a body. Unlike the Golari deck, this Rakdos build gives you a great skeleton to build on. As a matter of fact one of the top 4 decks was a little mono-red deck that used a lot of cards found in this one. If you need the Red commons and uncommons that just let you win this is what you need. So while it doesn’t have the high dollar cards the Golgari deck has, it has all the Red staples you will even need. Well, at least until Gatecrash comes out early next year.

Yeah, there won't be any Red cards in Gatecrash

That’s all I have for now. Check back later this week for the top deck lists from our Game Day events!

-Jon