Monday, December 03, 2007

Lorwyn Constructed decks

It seems I have visitors!

I'm getting a lot of hits from people searching the net for Llorwyn Constructed decks. Block Constructed was always my favorite format, I like building decks, and I like the openness of building whatever you want but the restriction of having to use cards from one set - which presumably have been designed to go together in some way.

In Llorwyn they seem to have really set that up by overlapping the colors and the tribes - so now you can play a "Black/Blue" deck, or you can play a "Faerie deck" which is Blue with Black, or Blue with white, or you can play a Merfolk deck... the possibilities are many, and there are lots of ways to go about each type of deck. Do I want my U/w deck to be about Merfolk? Or just good U/W control cards? Do I want a WW deck? Or do I want a Kithkin deck (similar, but concentrating more on the tribe stuff)? Do I want to fill my Green/Black deck with Elves which synergize, or just a lot of big creatures and creature D?

I'm not as into Magic as I used to be, so I don't scour the 'net looking for who's playing what, or what decks have won which tournaments. I'd be interested to see what people are building though. A while ago I posted 5 decks I threw together out of the cards I had from the prerelease. Most of them turned out to be pretty bad. One of them though seems very strong and it wouldn't surprise me if a deck like it were starting to win tournaments here and there.

That is if there are tournaments here and there for Lorwyn Block Constructed... I was very disappointed to read that they didn't plan for or test Lorwyn for Block Constructed at all. I guess there will be no "official" LBC tournaments, though I'm sure there will be plenty of local ones. I'm annoyed that such an interesting format is categorically ignored by the entire Magic design team. I guess they were too busy wetting themselves over their big secret that they're changing the block structure to 2 big sets and 2 small sets per year, which are distinct but related. Yipee.

So if you're reading this based on a search for Lorwyn Constructed stuff, leave a comment with a deck idea you're working on - preferably one you think could be a tournament winner or would dominate the format (if there were a format to dominate). My money's on G/b Elves.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is English, right?

Seth Jaffee said...

I guess if you don't know the game, any game may sound like a foreign language!

This post was sort of for the people looking at my blog based on a search for Lorwyn Block Constructed - a tournament format for Magic: the Gathering. Lots of people have been accessing the bloc because it comes up in a google search, but none of them leave any comments :(

Brad said...

Of course, Lorwyn Block Constructed queues fire multiple times a day on Magic Online. Gb elves are OK but all the green elves die to Shriekmaw (and most to Nameless Inversion) and the only good black elf is Nath. Haven't actually seen any merfolk, giant, or treefolk decks in the queues. I've seen some decent UB decks with a minor faerie theme. Kithkin and flamekin are pretty good but don't always get there.

The decks I see consistently doing well are control. I've seen mono-blue with lots of counters, Sower of Temptation to steal anything that makes it to the board, and Guile as finisher. Basically a port of the Standard Sonic Boom deck. I've also seen GBU planeswalker control -- a very nice deck that ran over me. Masked Admirers is a pain and Garruk is of course awesome. I've been playing UB Mannequin control with some success. You can probably guess at the contents: Shriekmaw, Mulldrifter, Mourwhelk, Makeshift Mannequin, Profane Command. With Vivid lands it's pretty easy to splash Oblivion Ring.

What I haven't seen, and I think might be the best aggro-ish deck (probably more aggro-control) is goblins. Black creatures = safe from the 'maw. Early drops put pressure on all the control decks. And the recursion theme frustrates removal. I'm trying to figure out the best build.

Seth Jaffee said...

I don't really do MTGO (I had played it a little when it came out, but didn't keep up when I quit Magic).

I guess I haven't seen the Control decks, but it doesn't surprise me that they exist. I still think the G/B deck would do well vs a control deck because it has so damn many "questions," and I haven't seen a lot of cards which answer multiple questions such as good old Wrath of God.

Admittedly I really ought to play some before making any real assertions, but if there were a LBC tournament tomorrow, I'd bring G/B. I have no idea as to Sideboard, I haven't even looked close enough at the cards to think about it. I think there's a green enchantment that, once in play, makes your opponent really not want to counter your spells (puts a creature in play if they cast on your turn or something).

As for the Elementals that Evoke, they all seem so expensive (Mulldrifter, Mourwelk) that I wonder if it's really worth it.

And as for Goblins, yeah, there are some good goblin cards... the Mudrunner or whatever (lightning bolt something if it dies) and the black Goblin Grenade for 5 damage seem like a lot of damage, plus other burn and 2cc 2/2 goblins, etc - should make an OK "burn" deck so to speak.

Thanks for posting!