Guilds of Rav prerelease!
Limited forum
Posted on Sept. 25, 2018, 10:24 a.m. by greyninja
Guilds of Ravnica is nearly upon us!
Are you attending any prerelease events this weekend? What guilds do you plan on playing?
For those who don't know: each 6-booster pack prerelease kit comes with one pack "seeded" with your Guild of choice. The promo is also from that Guild.
Are there any limited bombs that you think people should watch out for? Any mechanics you think will be crucial to your game plan?
I'm excited and I hope you are too!
I'll be going to prerelease on Saturday. I kind of miss doing the midnight releases, but Fridays are always busy workdays for my SO and myself, and we just don't have the energy for it.
I'm going to choose Dimir. Surveil looks pretty strong in the late game to avoid mana flood, and has wonderful synergies with Golgari's Black cards/Izzet's Blue cards. I figure it should give me a solid framework for whatever deck I end up playing.
I think all the guilds seem pretty solid though. I can see a Selesnya build being pretty scary to play against. Wide decks tend to be pretty solid in prereleases, as there just are not enough answers to many creatures--and a wide build that can suddenly drop a powerful bomb gives you the best of both worlds.
September 25, 2018 10:40 a.m. Edited.
Flooremoji says... #4
First pick: Dimir. That looks like the best guild for "Combo" decks, and that's what I like to play. Second pick: Golgari: Still decent slight combo element (IMO) and even if I don't get anything else, there still is the chance of getting AT.
September 25, 2018 10:42 a.m.
I watched the pre-prerelease of loading ready run. I was solidly in Dimir camp until then. I was impressed by surveil, it enabled great card selection and is an awesome mechanic.
I saw it in action and it was not particularly good. The Dimir have almost no way to close out a game quickly, they are more "death bya thousand paper cuts", and all your excellent control options are not enough to stop a selesnya player casting 2-3 4/3s for 4.
I will choose Golgari as my guild. I like to splash in my builds at prerelease and this is an excellent option to do so. Both Abzan and Sultai are appealing options and Golgari seems to be a versatile guild.
September 25, 2018 11:18 a.m.
I also watched the LRR pre-pre-release and felt like the Dimir plan looked good but the deck, not so much. I'm still playing UB though as I pre-registered! Not sad :)
It did make the point though that we're a rare down because of the seeded pack - the rare/mythic in the guild pack is the Promo card where you'd normally get your 6 boosters plus the Promo * comically shakes fist *
September 25, 2018 12:06 p.m.
ork_mcgork says... #7
While I'm excited for prerelease, I'm not jazzed about the seeded packs. It's become a novelty for these "faction" sets and that's great - until you can't build a deck in those colors. At that point you're down a pack, or you're forcing a strategy that isn't viable with your pool. Not a huge deal since prereleases are for fun, but still.
Having said that, I'm preregistered for a prerelease sealed as the Izzet League. They're my favorite guild, and I think the Jump-Start stuff looks fun if you can get all the right pieces together. Plus I'm hoping to get a Ral promo.
September 25, 2018 3:06 p.m.
DragonKing90 says... #8
picking golgari no doubt. creature heavy decks tend to do better at prereleases, and that works pretty well with the undergrowth mechanic. plus it gives me a chance to pull Assassin's Trophy in the seeded pack.
September 25, 2018 7:04 p.m.
Would likely have picked Golgari, but it was already sold out via presales, so went with Selesnya instead, which I think will have highly consistent build possibilities in the limited environment, so looking to try to place as high as possible. With just one "seeded" pack, I'm interested to see if it's a guarantee that everyone ends up playing their selected guild anyway.
September 26, 2018 12:13 a.m.
ork_mcgork, Ixalan was a faction set and did not have seeded packs, we have not had seeded packs for a few years now, I think since last time we were on Ravnica. Now that I think about it, probably Tarkir was the last time, so 3 years sans seeded packs.
September 26, 2018 2:35 a.m.
LittleBlueHero says... #11
My shop told me all the guilds were registering about even... except Selesnya. So thats who I went with. The next day Dimir and Golgari were both sold out.
Selesnya has always been the guild I leaned towards (of the five) so I will be very happy if I can put a solid mid-rangey deck together.
Selesnya colors are sort of lacking in the "Bomb" department but I could get lucky and pull March of the Multitudes or a Nullhide Ferox. I don't really think the deck will need a bomb to win though since I should have access to some larger than usual turn 4 or 5 plays and white has a few decent sized fliers that aren't rare.
Choke the board and soar over?
I fully expect to have to splash so hopefully I put some solid removal in either black or red and I can cross guild somewhat effectively.
September 26, 2018 12:14 p.m.
DragonKing90 says... #12
LittleBlueHero i would highly advise against adding a 3rd color in a prerelease.
September 26, 2018 7:27 p.m.
3-color is tough. Now is maybe the time though with 2x Gates; one for each legend. They're slow but it's there I guess
If we see multiple Chromatic Lantern in 2HG then probably yea! + or + would be rad. They both share a ton of synergy
September 26, 2018 11:53 p.m.
LittleBlueHero says... #15
You must be very lucky in pre-releases then. Its a sealed format meaning Im less likely to have enough playable in any two colors to make it work well. Its more likely this time around since we get a seeded booster. And don't get me wrong I have forced 2 colors in plenty of times when I probably shouldn't have.
Normally, having enough good cards in two colors out of 6 packs is very hard to do. You aren't wrong of course, two colors would be more consistent and play better, however in most sealed environments i've been a part of it's just not feasible.
Drafting is easier because you can pick and choose what your getting. For me sealed is such a crapshoot :)
The key for me is focus on 2 colors and splash no more than 3-4 of the best cards in a 3rd color if I have too. They shouldn't cost more than 1 colored mana either. You don't have to see them often for them to be effective. But thats just how I approach sealed I guess.
September 28, 2018 1:07 p.m.
DragonKing90 says... #16
LittleBlueHero: limiting myself to 2 colors in prereleases doesnt make me lucky. you should always "force" 2 colors for the sake of your mana base. its highly unlikely you'll have any dual lands at a prerelease, and locking yourself out of one of your colors because you can't draw the correct lands will almost always result in a loss. i'm not sure how you're saying 2 colors isn't feasible. an overwhelming large majority of decks i've seen at prereleases are 2 colors. its the 3rd that makes a deck unfeasible. i tried a 3 color deck for the dominaria prerelease against my better judgment because i pulled some decent cards (decent for a prerelease that is) and lost most of my matches because i sat with there with uncastable bombs in my hand.
September 28, 2018 3:02 p.m.
LittleBlueHero says... #17
Key word is "forcing."
If everyone else in your meta is forcing things than it would probably work out better for you than it does for me. Where I play most of the participants splash a 3rd color rather than "force" 2 colors by playing sub-par cards just because they are on color. I have lost games to cards I didn't see coming because I didn't realize they were even running that color until round 2 lol. The idea is that splashing for a 3rd color and playing the BEST limited cards you can will serve me better than streamlining my mana and playing 2 colors with weak cards to fill the deck out.
Different sets offer different opportunities and feasibility of either going 2 or splashing a third. Don't get me wrong im not saying I ALWAYS SPLASH... nor do I ALWAYS FORCE 2. But in my experience (which varies for everyone) I have had much more success when I splash say black for 2-3 decent kill spells than run sub par or super situational cards on color.
In Ravnica we have color fixers at common, uncommon and rare. Being able to splash shouldn't be hard, in fact if you are drafting its probably even possible to throw together a 5 color gate deck if you felt like it.
For example I Chose Selesnya as my guild. Lets say I open an assassin's trophy in one of my packs. I would 100% splash black to run that and a couple other solid black cards. Hopefully I had a guildgate or 2 as well but with green there are a couple other ways to seek out a missing color.
We just have different opinions and thats great. You aren't wrong, neither am I so long as we are having fun doing what we do!
I'll report back with what I was able to do after the weekend. I am hoping like you I will be able to stick to 2 but I am fully expecting to have to splash :)
greyninja says... #2
My wife and I plan on attending a 2 Headed Giant event on Sunday together. She wants to play Selesnya, so I think I'll play Dimir so that we don't have any color overlap. Surveil looks like a good way to filter through your deck efficiently, where convoke hopefully will be a way to drop bombs early.
I'm also going to the midnight release and can't decide between Izzet and Boros. They both look strong; so I'd like to see what others have to say.
September 25, 2018 10:30 a.m.