It was a cold cloudy kind of day last Saturday; the perfect kind of day for staying in and playing Magic for nine hours. Well…that’s what around 150 people thought at least.
That’s right last Saturday was Bloomington’s Gatecrash Pre-release, and it was a big one! We had 150 folks split between two amazing tournaments. Everyone there was ready to cheer on their new favorite Guild. You see, just like the previous pre-release for Return to Ravnica, all those in attendance were able to choose and play for one of Ravnica’s Guilds. Last September people could choose from among the Blue/White Azorius, Blue/Red Izzet, Red/Black Rackdos, Black/Green Golgari, or the Green/White Selesnya. Last weekend was the advent of five more of Ravnica’s Ten Guilds. The choice was between the Blue/Black Dimir, Blue/Green Simic, Green/Red Gruul, Red/White Boros, or the White/Black Orzhov.
I was eager to play with the Extorting Orzhov Syndicate. I played in our Sealed Tourney rather than our Two-Headed Giant Event, so I was on my own and had to make do with whatever cards fate handed me. I opened my Guild-pack, read my Guild letter, and started sorting my cards. I wasn’t graced with any major offerings so I had to make do with solid but not super-powered cards. This forced my deck into an uneasy alliance with House Dimir so I could add a little more umph.
- Syndic of Tithes x 1
- Basilica Guards x 1
- Knight of Obligation x 1
- Basilica Screecher x 2
- Gateway Shade x 1
- Slate Street Ruffian x 1
- Balustrade Spy x 1
- Crypt Ghast x 1
- Cartel Aristocrat x 1
- Alms Beast x 1
- Treasury Thrull x 1
- Deathcult Rogue x 2
- Duskmantle Guildmage x 1
- Mortus Strider x 1
- Shielded Passage x 2
- Smite x 1
- Knight Watch x 1
- Angelic Edict x 1
- Devour Flash x 1
- Hands of Binding x 1
- Beckon Apparition x 1
- Godless Shrine x 1
- Orzhov Guildgate x 1
- Plains x 5
- Swamp x 5
- Island x 4
As you might be able to tell I lacked the big beaters needed to go all smashy smash, so I had to rely on the Orzhov Guild mechanic to get things done. Thankfully, Extort does in fact pay the bills. It’s a fantastic mechanic for limited play. It lets you spend all that extra mana you tend to have when playing limited. I’ll tell you what else did the work for this deck (too bad I figured it out later in the tourney): Shielded Passage. This little 1 cmc spell not only gave me more effective trading but also turned into a sweet lifelinking Fireball. Nothing like getting a fantastic trade with Alms Beast and blasting your opponent for 3 damage and gaining 3 life. Good times.
While my decked worked well enough, it lacked some key cards. These were cards that showed up in my opponents Orzhov decks that I was unfortunate enough to not have. And no these weren’t bomby rares. Rather, these cards were just more great efficient commons; cards like Dutiful Thrull, the hyper efficient Kingpin’s Pet, and the solid removal of Executioner’s Swing. I won’t even mention how powerful Gift of Orzhova would have been with my Alms Beast. But alas, things just weren’t meant to be.
I mean I shouldn’t complain. The deck still ran exceptionally well. Giving me an overall record of 4-3, but you can one not lament what might have been with just a few more solid commons and uncommons.
And I think that’s what I like the most about this set. You hear a lot of complaints from the more competitive Constructed players that this set doesn’t have any good rares, and I could go on all day refuting that claim, but I think it’s easy to miss just how good the commons and uncommons in this set are. They just all so…solid. Nothing game breaking here, just super efficient well costed cards. Things like the new Keyrunes, and Guild Charms especially Boros’s, I think Pit Fight is great, Burning-Tree Emissary is burning for a home, Bioshift can do some bonkers tricks for 1 mana, Skyknight Legionnaire is aggressively costed, don’t get me started on Ghor-clan Rampager. I could go on. Now I know that I’m not the best at constructed Magic, but these simple commons and uncommons just look amazingly good. Sure you may not be opening 60 dollar rares out of this set, at least not at the moment, but you’re opening great solid backbone cards. At least I think so, but only time will tell.
Oh well, that likely enough of a rant for today. Regardless of how you feel about the set you cant deny that everyone at our pre-release had an absolute blast! And I can’t wait for the full release this Friday. You’ll be hearing from me again next week after our Release Sealed Event this Saturday. In that post I’ll be talking more about each of the Guilds and my thoughts about them. Until then.
