MTG Salvation

I didn't see any other thread on this topic, so I thought I'd start one here. The event decks for DKA have been announced. One is Mono-Red aggro, and the other is GB undying schenanigans. Here's a link to the Arcana

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/898

EDIT: Decklists were just released, and here's a link to the arcana

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/902

Gleeful Flames




Spiraling Doom

until we get decklists it's all superficial, aside from knowing they exist now, anything that could possibly be in them is all speculation, although it may be pretty obvious that HellRider and Strangleroot Geist are in them. The rest doesn't matter until we have more to go on.

Quote from Ravarshi

until we get decklists it's all superficial, aside from knowing they exist now, anything that could possibly be in them is all speculation, although it may be pretty obvious that HellRider and Strangleroot Geist are in them. The rest doesn't matter until we have more to go on.

Agreed. Nothing really matters until we know whats in them. Although its nice to know that some of the expensive cards i own aren't in those colors, so they can keep the price high.

Stromkirk Noble seems like a 2-of in the mono red deck.

Quote from tysith

This has got to be the most exciting announcement since M13s announcement.

I saw it on the mother ship and thought we would actually get the lists for it, what a disappointment.

Anyway, the red one looks absolutely rubbish already, we know what one of the rares is (psst, it's the guy on the box), and the fact there are no red rares worth raving about means this will bomb. I'm guessing Devil's Play, the red increasing card and probably an unplayable dragon of some sort. There isn't even the hope of a dismember or two as red has plenty of removal that it has no need for it.

The G/B might be better, there is the possibility of Birthing Pod as its Green and works well with undying, also geralfs messenger might in there as well, and if they put some woodland cemeteries in there it would almost be worth getting.

I like the idea of event decks, but only when they are playable or contain useful cards.

Whats wrong with Hellrider? Hes very playable.

I foresee 2x Stromkirk, 2x Pheonix, 1x Hellrider

I can guarantee that the people saying that Hellrider is bad and unplayable are the same people who said "garbage mythic" to Hero of Oxid Ridge.

Yeah I have to agree... RDW decks have been the only decks that don't go away during rotations... they pretty much stay the same even though the pieces change.

I agree, RDW's strengths are it's commons/uncommons. If two Stromkirk are included (I'm hoping they are) adding 2 more wont be too difficult.

Quote from tysith

Are you suggesting there are going to give us a play straight out of the box standard worthy deck? I don't think they will, I think it will be something stupid like a tribal devils type deck.

And with crappy worthless rares.

And if you can build a RDW out of just commons and uncommons, why would you need to buy this event deck?

Well, they did say that the event decks were supposed to be FNM ready, right out of the box. And the Illusions one was pretty good, as was the Kuldotha Red one.

And as for crappy rares? The Kuldotha Red one had two Goblin Guides. The Illusion one had one Lord of the Unreal and Phatasmal Image. That one Infect one had one Inkmoth Nexus and one Green Sun's Zenith. The Vampire one had two Bloodghast and FOUR Dismember (I know Dismember isn't a rare, but at the time it was like a $3 uncommon.). Seems like some pretty good rares to me.

Birthing Pod seems like a shoe-in for the Green/Black deck, especially with this line of text:

more ways to turn your smaller threats into larger ones.

Quote from Windreave

Birthing Pod seems like a shoe-in for the Green/Black deck, especially with this line of text:

Same could be said for undying. I would like it to be pod, but I'm not going to hold my breadth.

Quote from synack

Same could be said for undying. I would like it to be pod, but I'm not going to hold my breadth.

I agree... esp if they have said multiple times that they've considered Pod a dangerous deck from step one.

I wouldn't be shocked to see some Grafdigger's Cages in these!

The purpose of the event decks is to have have a decently competitive deck for new players to be able to jump into a FNM with, which is a good reason why people buy event decks. Also, I am pretty sure that it won't be a tribal devils type deck, because most of the previous event decks have been based on archetypes seen in standard (Remember the Kuldoth Red event deck?)

Quote from tysith

Are you suggesting there are going to give us a play straight out of the box standard worthy deck? I don't think they will, I think it will be something stupid like a tribal devils type deck.

That's exactly what "Event Decks" are supposed to be- Out of the box playable decks for FNM level events.The unplayable weak decks that you are thinking of are the "Intro Packs".

So far the Event Decks have all been pretty decent:

The original Mirrodin Besieged event decks included Into the Breech a mono red deck which was almost exactly Kuldotha Red including 2 Goblin Guide's, and Infect and Defile(probably the worst one) a UB infect control deck with 2 Drowned Catacomb's and 2 Consuming Vapors.

New Phyrexia gave us the unfortunately timed War of Attrition a mono W aggro equipment deck with 1 Puresteel Paladin and 2 Stoneforge Mystic's(which were then banned) and Rot from Within a mono G aggro infect deck with 1 Green Sun's Zenith, 1 Inkmoth Nexus and 2 Obstinate Baloth(in sideboard).

M12 had Illusionary Might a mono U aggro deck with 2 Grand Architect, 1 Lord of the Unreal, 1 Phantasmal Image and 1 Glacial Fortress. As well as Vampire Onslaught a mono B aggro deck with 2 Bloodghast, 1 Kalastria Highborn, 1 Verdant Catacombs and a playset of Dismember's.

Innistrad had Hold the Line a mono W human weenie aggro deck with 1 Champion of the Parish, 1 Elite Inquisitor, 2 Mirran Crusader and 2 Honor the Pure, as well as Deathfed a UGB self mill graveyard based deck with 1 Hinterland Harbor, 1 Ratchet Bomb, 1 Green Sun's Zenith and 1 Birds of Paradise.

All of these decks thus far while not being crazy good have been at least solid enough to take to an FNM and have included multiple good rares and playsets of important commons and uncommons.

This time we're getting a mono red aggro deck which means that likely rares include Grim Lavamancer, Chandra's Pheonix and Stromkirk Noble as well as the box cover indicated Hellrider. And a GB deck which with it's theme/strategy would seem likely to include Birthing Pod.

Quote from Serpos of Urug

I can guarantee that the people saying that Hellrider is bad and unplayable are the same people who said "garbage mythic" to Hero of Oxid Ridge.

Basically the same type of people as you can see in my sig.

Quote from tysith

Honestly I would love it if this deck had all those cards in it, but I have a strange feeling this is going to be a weak deck. I hope I'm proven wrong.

Well, you've certainly convinced me with this "strange feeling" argument. I don't know how anyone could deny that logic.

Anyway, didn't the Deathfed deck have a Birthing Pod in it? Or am I misremembering that?

Quote from luminum can

Anyway, didn't the Deathfed deck have a Birthing Pod in it? Or am I misremembering that?

The latter. Deathfed had Green Sun's Zenith , not birthing pod.

Ah, right. We were all speculating it would have Pod. Well, now that we have Undying creatures it seems much more likely that we'll actually be getting it this time around. And maybe the red deck will have Grafdigger's Cage in the sideboard.

Quote from bryceicals

Whats wrong with Hellrider? Hes very playable.

No he isn't.

Quote from UnderwaterGuy

No he isn't.

Yeah, he is. Not the best creature, but he's pretty good. He's definitely playable.

Quote from orbz621

Yeah, he is. Not the best creature, but he's pretty good. He's definitely playable.

I think he'll be more playable in a year... but yes, totally playable.

Hellrider's damage doesn't target and he doesn't even have to attack to make it happen. He will be at the top of RDW curve and is better then Hero of Oxid Ridge in my opinion.

Anyone saying Hellrider is a bad card has not seen him in action.

Also, I found when giving Hellrider tokens to play with things get ridiculous pretty fast. I could honestly see W/x tokens splashing some red for this guy.

Quote from PretendObject

Hellrider's damage doesn't target and he doesn't even have to attack to make it happen. He will be at the top of RDW curve and is better then Hero of Oxid Ridge in my opinion.

Anyone saying Hellrider is a bad card has not seen him in action.

Also, I found when giving Hellrider tokens to play with things get ridiculous pretty fast. I could honestly see W/x tokens splashing some red for this guy.

Wow, it's amazing the things you take for granted! I totally didn't realise he didn't target. That's HUGE... Leylone of Sanctitiy what?

Hellrider is incredibly playable. I didn't manage to pull one at the first prerelease I went two, but I pulled two at the second one (One is foil. I'm super happy with it, looks gorgeous!), and I gotta say, it was DUMB. I love it. Threw in some token generators (3 copies of Gather the Townsfolk, a copy of Increasing Devotion) and a copy of Increasing Vengeance. It is MEAN. I'm considering building a R/W token/aggro deck and seeing what happens. Will tell when my experiemnt fails is complete