Yes, I know we have some variations on this, but I'd like a simple poll on which guild felt better (in terms of pure win-capacity), based only on the hands-on experience from prerelease tournaments.
IMO Izzet needs to borrow heavily from a third color to compare with the others, as well as Golgari to a lesser extent.
I think Rakdos, Selesnya, and Azorius are at about the same level, but overall Azorius seemed more consistent.
That's absolutely true in my experience. Izzet is really good, but only when it's heavily built into another guild (ie into Azorius for detain removal). By itself it's pretty weak.
Played Selesnya with red/black splash to win a midnight flight of 34. Played Golgari with a white splash and got 4th in a 51 man flight yesterday. Izzet seemed the most pool dependent, and Selesnya/Golgari the most consistent.
Azorius had the worst win percentage in BOTH tournaments{all percentages are averaged from both}(with 44%). Rakdos (57%) and Selesnya (53%) had the highest win percentages.
Top eight for the larger event was:
3 Izzet (12 players)
2 Golgari (15 players)
1 Selesnya (9 players)
2 Rakdos (8 players)
0 Azorius (7 players)
My friends had a lot of fun in Azorius and Izzet. I did good with Rakdos. Selesnya and Golgari won stuff too. I think all the guilds are great and well-balanced. RTR is so awesome!
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Nicol Bolas is so awesome! And so is Kokusho! Bolas x Kokusho 4eva!!! <3
Read their story here!
I bombed out at my prerelease... My Izzet pool was so bad I had to go Selesnya...
Ouch... That happened to one of my Izzet opponents too. Even though Selesnya was their best pool, it was still pretty poor. But luck is a huge factor here. One of my friends pulled two Armada Wurms and an Angel of Serenity, for instance. Having a lot of bombs like that go a long way.
While each guild had some goodies, Selesnya and Azorius probably had the best results. I did manage to take 2nd out of 40 players with Radkos though. Stab Wounds everywhere!
I played both Azorius and Selesnya and I didn't drop a single game that I actually got to cast spells. The best results in general seemed to come from those two guilds.
It's an instant speed 5/5 trampler for 4. Wtf do you people want seriously? It has applications in populate/ above the curve beats decks, or in Bant control/ flash. I seriously think anyone mad at this card for any reason other than losing an attacker to instant speed wurm, should go home and make their own awesome card game and leave the rest of us alone.
Rakdos and Azorius seem to be the superior of all the guilds. Rakdos just has flat out better creatures than pretty much anyone (at least in a limited setting) with Chaos Imps and Carnival Hellsteed being probably the two best bombs besides Archon of the Triumvirate.
Detain is bonkers and Azorius backs it up with good spells and decent critters.
In my first flight, I played Izzet. My pool was pretty crap as far as Izzet went, so I ended up playing UWr. I had good fixing (opened a Transguild Promenade, two Izzet Keyrunes and a Chromatic Lantern) and opened an Isperia. She won me games. Sadly, I finished 2-2, narrowly losing my second round and getting land screwed my third round both games.
At draft I built a beautifully fast Rakdos deck with a little green. Smashed my first round opponent playing straight Selesnya. In the second round, I ran into a RUG defender mill deck, based around the Shredder artifact and the little blue dude that mills more cards for every defender you've got. His defenders were all big enough to hold off my unleashed forces, and he decked me both games.
In my second flight, I went Azorius. Like my first pool, the cards really wanted me to play in different colors, this time GWU. Finished second, 3-1. Bant Detain-Populate is a deck in Limited. I had three Dramatic Rescue, 1 Faerie Imposter and 5 creatures with Detain ETBs paired with a fistfull of populate cards, including the Selesnya Guildmage. Being able to detain my opponent's worst threats while establishing an army did the trick. I lost the final match to a Selesnya player with the 8/8 beater and Grove of the Guardian. Once a Selesnya player gets more than one 8/8, you're done.
Two things made my night. I opened a Vraska in my second pool. And I lived the dream; in round two of the second flight, I cast Supreme Verdict followed by Rootborn Defenses. He scooped.
My friends had a lot of fun in Azorius and Izzet. I did good with Rakdos. Selesnya and Golgari won stuff too. I think all the guilds are great and well-balanced. RTR is so awesome!
I LOVE your sig and Avatar!! "YOU'RE NOT MY ****ING MOTHER!!!!"
But anywho, Golgari and Selesnya seemed to be the ones on top at my locals. I played Selesnya myself and had a pretty solid deck.
I noticed a LOT of people ended up playing totally outside of the guild they choose. Like they'd pick Selesyna but end up like R/B/U or something.
Went Golgari at my pre-release, and opened an insane pool for it too. I had Jarad in my guild pack, Lotleth Troll, and Deadbridge Goliath. Supplemented it with some ok removal, and lots of cheap creatures and/or cheap scavenge, and I rocked face. Lotleth Troll is a major beating if not answered. you can just dump scavenge creatures to pump him, then scavenge them to pump him some more, and keep regen mana up very easily. The trample is just overkill.
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I just ordered the Buy-a-Box Card for Return to Ravnica. Its called Supreme Verdict.
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It's a Divine Verdict with tomatoes and sour cream. mmm.
Azorius and Selesnya dominated at my pre release.
Out of 101 players, the only 4-0 were 5 Selesnya and a couple Azorius, with those guilds being at least 50-60% of the 3-1s as well.
I played Azorius and was 3-0-1, split the first two games of the final round with a Selesnya and we just drew the last and split the packs.
Azor's Elocutors was incredible for me, I think I won either 4 or 5 times off of it, and I had this one guy soooo mad...
I myself am an Izzet supporter, and yet I also find that Izzet's reliance to Instant and Sorcery is bad. There is a lack of decent Izzet-color removal at common (Electrickery deals too little damage to matter, Annihilating Fire is single target), and even their other common trick cards are mostly temporary (Downsize, Chemister's Trick).
I didn't see a single Selesnya, so I have no clue how good they might've been.
I think Rakdos, Selesnya, and Azorius are at about the same level, but overall Azorius seemed more consistent.
That's absolutely true in my experience. Izzet is really good, but only when it's heavily built into another guild (ie into Azorius for detain removal). By itself it's pretty weak.
I voted Selesnya and Azorius, but Rakdos and Golgari are also great.
Modern:
Bant Eldrazi
Merfolk
Abzan Company
EDH:
Mono-Green Omnath
Mono-White Odric Soup
Mono-Blue Muzzio
Mono-Red Feldon
Azorius had the worst win percentage in BOTH tournaments{all percentages are averaged from both}(with 44%). Rakdos (57%) and Selesnya (53%) had the highest win percentages.
Top eight for the larger event was:
3 Izzet (12 players)
2 Golgari (15 players)
1 Selesnya (9 players)
2 Rakdos (8 players)
0 Azorius (7 players)
Nicol Bolas is so awesome! And so is Kokusho!
Bolas x Kokusho 4eva!!! <3
Read their story here!
BMy Little KokushoB
RBRakdos UNLEASHED!!!RB
My Standard Decks:
UGRakdos, Bolas, and Ludevic Go To A PartyUG
Club Flamingo Wins: 1!
Ouch... That happened to one of my Izzet opponents too. Even though Selesnya was their best pool, it was still pretty poor. But luck is a huge factor here. One of my friends pulled two Armada Wurms and an Angel of Serenity, for instance. Having a lot of bombs like that go a long way.
Selensya was the most powerful lategame by a mile from what I saw. Populating the 8/8 Vig Land-dude was huge.
Buddy and I went 7-1 total both with Radkos... only loss was double-mana screw. Radkos has early big beats and late reach.
Traitorous Instinct is definitely a MVP with everyone playing at least 1 bomb (their prerelease card)- many times Instinct is a nice finisher.
Azorius's promo was way crazy, and Selesyna had a really strong endgame. Rakdos can beat either if it's fast enough.
Updated 11/01/13
-->Standard:
:symwg::symwg::symwg: Aggressive Midrange
:symu::symu::symu: Devotion
-->Modern:
:symwg::symrg::symug: Kiki-Jiki Pod
:0mana::symur::0mana: Affinity
Detain is bonkers and Azorius backs it up with good spells and decent critters.
WUBRGCommander Decklists - PaperWUBRG
CCCCCommander Decklists - TheorycraftCCCC
Sig Credit: Pegasus Bishop
At draft I built a beautifully fast Rakdos deck with a little green. Smashed my first round opponent playing straight Selesnya. In the second round, I ran into a RUG defender mill deck, based around the Shredder artifact and the little blue dude that mills more cards for every defender you've got. His defenders were all big enough to hold off my unleashed forces, and he decked me both games.
In my second flight, I went Azorius. Like my first pool, the cards really wanted me to play in different colors, this time GWU. Finished second, 3-1. Bant Detain-Populate is a deck in Limited. I had three Dramatic Rescue, 1 Faerie Imposter and 5 creatures with Detain ETBs paired with a fistfull of populate cards, including the Selesnya Guildmage. Being able to detain my opponent's worst threats while establishing an army did the trick. I lost the final match to a Selesnya player with the 8/8 beater and Grove of the Guardian. Once a Selesnya player gets more than one 8/8, you're done.
Two things made my night. I opened a Vraska in my second pool. And I lived the dream; in round two of the second flight, I cast Supreme Verdict followed by Rootborn Defenses. He scooped.
Innistrad-RTR
UWR Flash: 7-1, 1 FNM Win-A-Box
Rakdos Aggro: 20-8
UW Flash: 11-5
Boros Aggro: 3-1
Jund: 42-12-3, 4 TNM Win-A-Box, 2 Koopa Standard IQs, Gatecrash Game Day Champion, M14 Game Day Champion
RTR - Theros
RDW 6-0 1 TNM Win-A-Box
Esper Control 7-4
Boros Burn 3-1
RW Devotion 3-1
Monoblack Devotion 8-4
I LOVE your sig and Avatar!! "YOU'RE NOT MY ****ING MOTHER!!!!"
But anywho, Golgari and Selesnya seemed to be the ones on top at my locals. I played Selesnya myself and had a pretty solid deck.
I noticed a LOT of people ended up playing totally outside of the guild they choose. Like they'd pick Selesyna but end up like R/B/U or something.
Out of 101 players, the only 4-0 were 5 Selesnya and a couple Azorius, with those guilds being at least 50-60% of the 3-1s as well.
I played Azorius and was 3-0-1, split the first two games of the final round with a Selesnya and we just drew the last and split the packs.
Azor's Elocutors was incredible for me, I think I won either 4 or 5 times off of it, and I had this one guy soooo mad...
Without enough Goblin Electromancer and Guttersnipe, it's hard for Izzet to shine in RTR limited.
On the other hand, the massive amount of common token generators in Selesnya makes them a monster once they start running.