Return to Ravnica is right around the corner. And when it comes, I will be wearing the blue and red of Izzet with pride. I have at least one Standard deck planned, and the guild is looking strong in Limited formats as well. On top of that, I’m planning on dipping my toe into Legacy soon, and the deck I’m considering is entirely red. But that’s a post for another time. Today we’re talking about Friday Night Magic.
I love FNM as a concept. Having a steady night for competition at a low cost provided you can assemble a deck is very appealing. And the Internet has made deck assembly even easier. Any deck being played by the pros can be found with a quick Google search or two, and if you have the disposable income, even the rarest of cards can be found for sale somewhere.
Now, I will admit to a bit of emotional and cultural bias when it comes to this. It’s one of those moments where I shake my walking stick at the young whipper-snappers taking up table space in my hobby. You see, I first played Magic back before there was an Internet, and all you really had to go on was sheer deckbuilding instinct, hard-won experience, and the occasional article in Scrye magazine. Does anybody else remember Scrye? Anyway, there really isn’t anything wrong with copying a deck from an online pro-winning deck list, I just get a little peeved when I keep losing to the same online pro-winning deck list because everybody and their kid seems to be playing it.
Like I said, nothing wrong with this. Play what works for you. I just prefer building my own decks.
Of course, there’s no way to test my deck ideas other than playing them. While I recently got back into Magic Online for the first time since some point during the Renaissance, I don’t have anywhere near enough cards from the Innistrad block to replicate my deck. Speaking of which…
It will still be a couple weeks before my full Izzet plan comes to fruition. I do have a somewhat viable deck I’ve been monkeying around with, and I think I need to revisit its most successful iteration. At the same time, there are some concepts from the latest version of it that I really like, but the way it was set up was simply too reactionary. Still, having responses planned is good, and going fully aggro didn’t really work for me, either. The result is what the pros like to call “midrange.”
[mtg_deck title=”WB Token Midrange”]
// Creatures
4 Doomed Traveler
3 Hero of Bladehold
3 Stonehorn Dignitary
3 Blade Splicer
2 Bloodline Keeper
2 Captain of the Watch
// Spells
4 Lingering Souls
3 Honor of the Pure
3 Go for the Throat
3 Oblivion Ring
1 Intangible Virtue
// Planeswalkers
2 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
2 Elspeth Tirel
// Lands
11 Plains
7 Swamp
4 Isolated Chapel
2 Vault of the Archangel
// Sideboard
3 Revoke Existence
3 Celestial Purge
3 War Priest of Thune
2 Day of Judgment
2 Grafdigger’s Cage
2 Doom Blade
[/mtg_deck]
Cutting [mtg_card]Venser, the Sojourner[/mtg_card] hurts, but vigilant soldiers that slow down aggressive enemies while quick token generation holds off opposing creatures and makes it difficult for control decks to keep up may be a more viable path to victory.
I really can’t wait for Return to Ravnica. This deck need some time off, probably until Gatecrash shows up. Or I pull enough good cards to make a Junk Tokens deck…
Leave a Reply