Pojo's Magic The Gathering news, tips, strategies and more!

Pojo's MTG
MTG Home
Message Board
News & Archives
Deck Garage
BMoor Dolf BeJoSe

Columnists
Paul's Perspective
Jeff Zandi
DeQuan Watson
Jordon Kronick
IQ
Aburame Shino
Rare Hunter
Tim Stoltzfus
WiCkEd
Judge Bill's Corner


Trading Card
Game

Card of the Day
Guide for Newbies
Decks to Beat
Featured Articles
Peasant Magic
Fan Tips
Tourney Reports


Other
Color Chart
Book Reviews
Online Play
MTG Links
Staff



120x90 Ad Space
For Rent!



BMoor's Magic The Gathering Deck Garage
Matthew's Green/White deck
May 9, 2007

Dear Bmoor,

I have a W/G deck that I made. Its made of Ravnica Selesnya deck and a bunch
of Time Spiral boosters. I have a lot of singles in here cause I couldn't find
more, but most serve the same purpose. I either hold of my opponent and
flanking or trample them to death. Using Fist of Ironwood or siege worm or
cavalry master. Or hold them off using a mixture of 2 and 3 drop and centaur
safeguard and essence warden for life. And sometimes I just power scion of
the wild and power it up with saps and trample. My opponent is mainly my
brother who just uses reality fracture. I just started playing a month ago
so pick my deck to shreds.


Creatures x26
Amrou Seeker
Amrou Scout
Ana battlemage
Ashcoat Bear
Benalish Cavalry
Cavalry Master
Cantaur Safeguard x4
Cloudchaser Kestrel x2
Craw Giant
Essence Warden
Knight of Holy Nimbus
Nantuko Shaman
Primal Forcemage
Saltfield Recluse
Scion of the Wild
Selesnya Guildmage
Siege Wurm
Tolsimir Wolfblood
Verdecloth the Ancient
Veteran Armorer
Watchwolf
Whitemane Lion


Other x14

AEther Web x2
Fists of Ironwood x3
Gather Courage x2
Overwhelm
Pentarch Ward
Sprout
Strength in Numbers
Sunlance
Thrill of the Hunt
Withstand

Mana x21
Forest x9
Plains x9
Selesnya Sanctuary x2
Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree

Thanks for looking at my deck
Matthew
This deck is a prime example of the sort of deck everyone (including myself) starts out with the first time they try to build a deck.  There's a lot of singles because the player doesn't yet understand what cards are good and what cards aren't, and nobody wants to go out and buy playsets of cards that later turn out to be unusably bad.  So what I'll do today is run down each card here, and tell you what can come out and what you want more of.

Now, first I want to try and understand what your strategy is.  Most people start out with only a vague idea of a strategy that rarely extends beyond "attack with creatures".  Your deck looks like a Swarm deck, what with Overwhelm, Scion of the Wild, and such.  I can certainly accommodate that.  Let's look at your creatures first.

I'll start with what I already know you can pull out: Whitemane Lion, Essence Warden, Primal Forcemage, Nantuko Shaman, and Ana Battlemage.  You can't pay either of the Battlemage's kicker costs, so it's just a 2/2 for 2G-- you can do better.  Primal Forcemage only works well with a lot of flash creatures or a lot of creatures with haste, so it's out.  And the others are just suboptimal.

Next is your "flanking" subtheme.  You have two creatures with flanking, and a Cavalry Master.   You're never going to draw all your flankers, so Cavalry Master comes out.  Benalish Cavalry is decent, but it can come out too if you need room for better cards.  As for your Knight of the Holy Nimbus, well, I'm not pulling them out yet because it leads into another subtheme you've got-- the Rebels.

You've got 4 Rebels: Amrou Scout, Amrou Seekers, Saltfield Recluse, and Knight of the Holy Nimbus.  All of these are good cards independently, and Amrou Scout is a very powerful way to pull creatures right out of your deck as you need them.  If you can get a few more Amrou Scouts, then you won't need other copies of your other Rebels; you'll be able to search out the specific one you need when you need it.  You could also throw in a few more single copies of various Rebels.  I suggest Aven Riftwatcher, Riftmarked Knight, or Blade of the Sixth Pride depending on what you think your deck is lacking.

Speaking of 3/1 creatures, I notice you've got 4 Centaur Safeguard.  Ironically, this isn't really a good card.  A 3-power attacker for 3 isn't bad, and a few extra life points help, but really, white and green each have better creatures at their disposal.  If you want the mana versatility of a hybrid card, use Selesnya Guildmage.  If you just want a cheap 3/x attacker, use Watchwolf.  Or an artifact creature like Soultether Golem would work.

All your other creatures pass, but if I might suggest a few others that would work well: Selesnya Evangel, Hedge Troll, Juniper Order Ranger, and a few more copies of Ashcoat Bear.

Now, let's take a look at your other spells.  AEther Web is very good: it lets you block things you couldn't normally.  Remember to play it in response to your opponent declaring an attack.  That's what Flash is for, after all!  Fists of Ironwood is also a very nice play on one of your bigger guys, or if you just need an extra two 1/1's.  The worst spells here are undoubtedly Withstand, Pentarch Ward, and Sprout.  They can go.  Sprout is basically just a 1/1 with no abilities beyond being able to chump block at instant speed, but Flash isn't much use on a guy so small.  Withstand is just damage prevention-- not worth a card.  And Pentarch Ward costs too much, even if it does draw you a card.  In their place, try to get a few more copies of Thrill of the Hunt or Sunlance.

That pretty much covers everything.  Your mana base looks fine, so I don't need to do any work there.  So, to sum up, I'll leave you with this thought: the best way to get some new cards for your deck is to buy booster packs of Ravnica.  Not Guildpact or Dissension, Ravnica.  That's where all the Selesnya cards are, and you're bound to get a few decent multicolor Selesnya cards.  The same goes for anyone with a red/white deck, a black/green deck, or a black/blue deck.  Good luck!

~BMoor
 


 

Copyright© 1998-2007 pojo.com
This site is not sponsored, endorsed, or otherwise affiliated with any of the companies or products featured on this site. This is not an Official Site.