The new Duels of the Planeswalker 2013 decks are out today, according to Xbox Live. They cost 240 Microsoft Points, and presumably $3 on PSN and Steam. Looks like that Dimir deck from earlier maybe comes out by itself?
new players as they show up maybe twice with some budget deck they've spent the week designing and testing only to be beaten into oblivion by expensive decks they cannot hope to obtain and I think this is a tragedy.
The Gruul deck looks incredibly boring. Just a bunch of mediocre/terrible 4 and 5 drops. Orzhov also looks kinda meh. It also seems like they had limited room because there was already a black/white deck. What is with the spirit theme in the deck when there really is not that many spirits. There is only for in the main I think without counting the doomed travellers
Oh lawd, that gruul deck is so bad. It does nothing until turn 4/5 then plays bad cards. Do they want to sell expansions or don't they? The deck is simply unfun. Sadface.
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D: Even in context of DotP (where the decks aren't always the cutting edge of power - except for Bolas' "so ludicrously powerful it's not legal in any actual existing format" deck ;P) that Gruul deck is kinda bad, it's got practically no removal at all, and not even any ramp to give it an edge in speed to play its... average at best 4 and 5 drops. Such a sad panda
The Orzhov isn't much better, but at least it's got a few interesting (if not powerful) interactions, the Gruul deck is just... beats, and bad ones at that.
I actually could see the gruul deck being decent though. I mean in this game some cards are much better than usual. (I'm looking at you taunting elf). So I would not be surprised if it could win. But that is probably a slim chance...
The lack of Scab-clan Mauler makes me very sad....would it hurt for them to add maybe a kird ape or 2 and some other 1 drops that enable bloodthrist (mog fanatic for example)
Neither of them really feel like Gruul or Orzhov decks, just a bunch of cards that fall under those colours thrown together with a few guild cards.
No mortify/tin street hooligan for guild worthy removal....for shame.
They don't usually have good one drops in any of the decks honestly. I think they're trying to keep the games much slower (it plays almost like a halfway between Standard and Commander).
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The Orzhov deck could have been good, but I don't feel that the 'opponents-lose-life-and-you-gain-life' theme was pushed nearly enough. As such, the deck looks like it doesn't have much personality at all, at least at a glance.
The Gruul deck just seems to lack cards that are particularly exciting. I mean, if they're gonna play up the whole 'must attack each turn if able' theme, you'd think they'd give us more stuff to actually offset that disadvantage.
I'm still getting the pack when it's out on the iPad though :P. I swear, releasing Duels on the iPad was one of the best decisions ever in the history of everything. It's almost like it was made for the darn thing.
They're actually pretty decent. They both need a few unlocks and swaps before they're really good, but starting out I found both decks to be both fun and powerful enough to win.
I do seem to get mana screwed with the Orzhov deck WAY more than normal. Probably just variance, but it's really noticeable.
the gruul deck needs some freaking ramp. BAD. I have to mulligan hands with nothing but 5-drops all the time, but when I get a curve-y hand it owns face.
I haven't played the Gruul deck, but the Orzhov deck actually does pretty well with its "kill enemies through life loss" theme. Easy as he is anyway, I killed campaign Talrand (set to "planeswalker") doing very little damage through combat.
Yeah the Gruul deck is better than I thought it would be. Something like Colossal Might + Berserk can just outright END opponents.
It's still a little boring though, because it feels like a bit of a gimmicky way to win. X(
The amount of trample the deck has to prevent chump-blocking is nice, though.
I think that's a fine way to win. If that's gimmicky so is countering everything your opponent plays in the mid game to stick better threats than they can in the late game.
We've been recreating all of these DOTP decks in paper for review on the site, and I'm thrilled to be seeing more. Since we review in order it may be awhile before we get to these, but playing a precon with Berserk seems like a joyous blast from the past.
Gruul is pretty beastly, honestly. I didn't have it fully unlocked before it was wrecking in 2-HG. It really makes you think about your pump spells, though.
The Orzhov deck is amazing, definitely one of my favorite decks on the game. I really hate the Gruul deck, though. It can be very explose with cards like Berserk, but the deck screams for more, cheap hasty dudes, and it has too many vanilla creatures in it. It's just a really dull deck overall (Berserkers of Blood Ridge, Centaur Courser and Silverback Ape? Really?). Whoever designed the deck really had a thing for Breath of Fury as well.
The Gruul deck overall is weak but many comments here fail to understand the deck... Those who can't see the mechanics here didn't properly read the decklist.
The Gruul deck is about combat tricks (it's easy to run 12-17 of them) and trample... so many ways to give trample... The combat tricks is pretty much your only form of removal (aside from the 3 burn spells) and you force your opponent into blocking sometimes much more than they need because you can chain 2-3 combat tricks and the game is over. That said, the deck is aggro but not fast or consistent enough, and folds to the many removal heavy control decks in the meta... it's pretty sad to see a murder/unmake/go for the throat fall on your critter after you pump it and Berserk... There's only one Fling in the deck too.
I found the deck fun to play with but it's not a competitive choice at all, it's not fast enough and the meta is based on removal that the Gruul deck folds to.
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As for the Orzhov, the theme they tried to play around is slow death via many small drains...
The deck has many removal (Unmake, Pillory of the Sleepless, Vindicate, Damnation) and tends to stick around via lifelink and some drain effect..
But the key here is Zealous Persecution. The meta is filled with 1 toughness that you are going to clear out of the way and the card is mostly used as a combat trick turning your 1/1s into 2/2s and your 2/2s into 3/3s.. killing your opponent's 2/2s.. It's some neat card advantage and it often turns the game over in your favor.
Later on, Bloodgift Demon helps you not to be top decking too much and I found Voracious Hatchling to be more useful than it seems if it's not taken care of right away.. a single Zealous Persecution in your combat phase gives it +3/+3...
I would agree that this deck doesn't have much synergy aside from playing black/white.. some lifelink and removal.. you survive and look for card advantage opportunities... that's how it plays. Zealous Persecution makes the deck.
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Orzhov
11 Swamp
4 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Angel of Flight Alabaster
2 Bloodgift Demon
3 Bloodhunter Bat
1 Divinity of Pride
4 Doomed Traveler
1 Gravedigger
1 Guardian Seraph
1 Keening Banshee
2 Mourning Thrull
2 Onyx Mage
2 Orzhov Guildmage
2 Restless Apparition
1 Sanguine Praetor
1 Shepherd of the Lost
1 Voracious Hatchling
1 Midnight Haunting
1 Necromancer's Covenant
3 Pillory of the Sleepless
1 Soul Feast
2 Unmake
1 Zealous Persecution
Unlocks:
Gruul
9 Mountain
4 Terramorphic Expanse
2 Berserkers of Blood Ridge
2 Bloodrock Cyclops
1 Borborygmos
2 Centaur Courser
1 Essence Warden
3 Gruul Guildmage
4 Gruul Scrapper
2 Sacred Wolf
2 Shivan Wurm
1 Silverback Ape
2 Tattermunge Maniac
2 Tattermunge Witch
2 Wickerbough Elder
2 Colossal Might
1 Fires of Yavimaya
1 Mage Slayer
1 Rancor
3 Wildsize
Unlocks:
WWWA White mage if you ever saw one.WWW
They didn't enjoy people hacking the game to find these decklists prematurely with new cards in them.
You won't see brand new cards in these for a long time.
Feel free to bid on my cards here!
EDIT: lol didnt realize you were talking about the DOTP
:symu::symw: Control
:symr::symb: Aggro
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The Orzhov isn't much better, but at least it's got a few interesting (if not powerful) interactions, the Gruul deck is just... beats, and bad ones at that.
They don't usually have good one drops in any of the decks honestly. I think they're trying to keep the games much slower (it plays almost like a halfway between Standard and Commander).
RRR Khorenthos - The Red Block (Feedback needed!) RRR
The Orzhov deck could have been good, but I don't feel that the 'opponents-lose-life-and-you-gain-life' theme was pushed nearly enough. As such, the deck looks like it doesn't have much personality at all, at least at a glance.
The Gruul deck just seems to lack cards that are particularly exciting. I mean, if they're gonna play up the whole 'must attack each turn if able' theme, you'd think they'd give us more stuff to actually offset that disadvantage.
I'm still getting the pack when it's out on the iPad though :P. I swear, releasing Duels on the iPad was one of the best decisions ever in the history of everything. It's almost like it was made for the darn thing.
Edit: its now out on iTunes
I do seem to get mana screwed with the Orzhov deck WAY more than normal. Probably just variance, but it's really noticeable.
the gruul deck needs some freaking ramp. BAD. I have to mulligan hands with nothing but 5-drops all the time, but when I get a curve-y hand it owns face.
WWWA White mage if you ever saw one.WWW
It's still a little boring though, because it feels like a bit of a gimmicky way to win. X(
The amount of trample the deck has to prevent chump-blocking is nice, though.
I think that's a fine way to win. If that's gimmicky so is countering everything your opponent plays in the mid game to stick better threats than they can in the late game.
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The Gruul deck is about combat tricks (it's easy to run 12-17 of them) and trample... so many ways to give trample... The combat tricks is pretty much your only form of removal (aside from the 3 burn spells) and you force your opponent into blocking sometimes much more than they need because you can chain 2-3 combat tricks and the game is over. That said, the deck is aggro but not fast or consistent enough, and folds to the many removal heavy control decks in the meta... it's pretty sad to see a murder/unmake/go for the throat fall on your critter after you pump it and Berserk... There's only one Fling in the deck too.
I found the deck fun to play with but it's not a competitive choice at all, it's not fast enough and the meta is based on removal that the Gruul deck folds to.
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As for the Orzhov, the theme they tried to play around is slow death via many small drains...
The deck has many removal (Unmake, Pillory of the Sleepless, Vindicate, Damnation) and tends to stick around via lifelink and some drain effect..
But the key here is Zealous Persecution. The meta is filled with 1 toughness that you are going to clear out of the way and the card is mostly used as a combat trick turning your 1/1s into 2/2s and your 2/2s into 3/3s.. killing your opponent's 2/2s.. It's some neat card advantage and it often turns the game over in your favor.
Later on, Bloodgift Demon helps you not to be top decking too much and I found Voracious Hatchling to be more useful than it seems if it's not taken care of right away.. a single Zealous Persecution in your combat phase gives it +3/+3...
I would agree that this deck doesn't have much synergy aside from playing black/white.. some lifelink and removal.. you survive and look for card advantage opportunities... that's how it plays. Zealous Persecution makes the deck.