So I made it to my first constructed standard FNM last night with my gf. I was playing my R/G Slumbering Dragon deck (Heroin Hero) and my gf was playing G/W angels (It's in Da Bible). Here are the links to the decks:

Heroin Hero: http://deckbox.org/sets/199066

It's in Da Bible!: http://deckbox.org/sets/215062

Rather than make a post that's 3,000 words long, you can read round-by-round explanations for how both decks played at the following links:

Heroin Hero - http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/heroin-hero/

It's in Da Bible!: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/its-in-da-bible/

Some general thoughts - As I'm sure you'll see in the notes on Tappedout, I wasn't pleased by both how many net-decked players there were and how heavily they seemed to be relying on Mirrodin block cards. But I wanted to get some thoughts from the rest of the group regarding my experiences. Namely, is the world of standard about to be that much "better" for those of us who started after Mirrodin once rotation hits? Aside from the thoughts I offered on the Tappedout pages, does anyone have any suggestions? Or should I just wait to see what else hits in RTR and try to re-evaluate things then?

As always, any input is greatly appreciated.

I have not looked at the angel deck yet.

I definitely think you had some very creative ideas in the other one. Personally, I'm not real fond of the dragon; however, you might have wanted to consider some of the following things. Roaring Primadox gave me many interesting ideas after just seeing the card once.

- Huntmaster of the Fells
2 life and a 2/2 token every turn

- Champion of Lambholt
- Counts when any creature hits the field under your control
- Works with the same cards you used to buff your dragon
- Works with the Huntmaster combo (2 creatures per turn)

- Acidic Slime
- I saw this mentioned in the comments at TappedOut. In my opinion one of the better ETB effects in Standard

- Thragtusk
- The synergy is almost too good to be true

- Zealous Conscripts
- Get yourself a sac outlet and have some fun

- Green Sun's Zenith
- 'Tutor's are very, VERY important in combo decks. It can tutor any of the above except Zealous and recycle itself.

- Conjurer's Closet
- Same concept, but free re-enter

You're looking into playing in standard, think big because standard is a fast format right now. Also, Return to Ravnica will see more token and Delver decks. While ponder is rotating out Izzet is bringing more support for instant/sorcery based decks. GB Zombies might be a thing too. Be prepared for all of these.

Sillvva wrote:Also, Return to Ravnica will see more token and Delver decks.

I could not disagree more, Dryad Militant alone hoses traditional delver-snapcaster strategies and can be played in a very large number of decks and while a delver on its own is strong, there are no good counterspells spoiled yet, and nothing for control in general, with the loss of ponder, mental misstep, gitaxian probe, and mana leak, blue doesn't look too great, at least not the way it does now. This is all without mentioning the Swords...

Anyway, about the decks, in regards to yours: I'd say beast within should be main deck, at least two, I know it sucks to have rotating cards in the deck but when green gets straight up removal, you use it.

I agree about acidic slime as much as it pains me, (not a fan for whatever reason).

You should know I'd recommend consistency, blah blah blah, but you don't like x4 ofs so I'll say that instead you should go for more ramp, also cut Increasing savagery for Blessings of Nature, it's gonna work out alot better for you IMO.

I've never had success with Garruk PH, he's cool but never did anything for me personally, I see where the card draw can be nice but is it really worth it?

Finally you should include some boardwipes, this is a slow deck, you need a way to keep some board control, I'd recommend Whipflare, Slagstorm, or even Blasphemous Act if you want something more final.

finally more birds and more rancors, those 2 can win games on their own




GW:

Not enough focus, you're going for humans and angels but competing between ramp and tokens/draw, it makes the deck muddled, pure human ramp is rarely a good idea IMO, just because if you don't hit a Pilgrim t1 you're likely screwed whereas with other dorks in as well you'll be fine (BOP Llanowar Arbor) also too many angels compared to the number of humans there's not much point in having an angelic overseer without a human.

Also It just saddens me to see no rancor and no silverblade paladins in this deck, as someone who uses both of these cards regularly I can say that they're some of the best cards in standard right now. If you don't want to include x4 rancor in any green deck that's remotely aggro i'm just confused, but I'm in love with rancor, I'd be preaching about lightning bolt too if it was in standard right now


Also don't get down about not doing too well, FNMs always attract net-deckers who want easy promos, I like FNM because where I'm at there's a wide range of people so I can test my decks from different angles but that could just be me, like at the last FNM I went to I played 5 rounds, swept my opponent the first 3, then got swept by a very interesting RUW mid-range (I hate mana leak by the way) and then again by a UBW sun titan token deck, but ultimately I had alot of fun because my deck preformed alot better than I thought it would, (it's also ready for rotation :) )

I will agree about including more Birds and Rancors. Those cards are great. Rancor is not affected by any type of remove from battlefield effect regardless of destination.

Many of the cards I suggested are 5 mana, so having more Birds of Paradise will be important for getting those earlier plays. Somberwald Sage might be a thing to.

imsully2 wrote:

Sillvva wrote:Also, Return to Ravnica will see more token and Delver decks.

I could not disagree more, Dryad Militant alone hoses traditional delver-snapcaster strategies and can be played in a very large number of decks and while a delver on its own is strong, there are no good counterspells spoiled yet, and nothing for control in general, with the loss of ponder, mental misstep, gitaxian probe, and mana leak, blue doesn't look too great, at least not the way it does now. This is all without mentioning the Swords...

What I was saying is that many of the people I know are saying that Izzet is going to be their favorite strategy. Far more of the people I know will be going for it over the other guilds. Since Delver is sticking around, I do not see why it won't be included in a majority of them since it is so good.

Plus, all Dryad Militant beats is Snapcaster Mage and the various Flashback I/S cards. Delver remains unhindered by it. And for UR Dryad Militant (2/1) is easy to kill, so I doubt you'll see less Snapcaster Mages because of it. Also if it does become a big problem, Nivmagus Elemental is an easy 1 mana fix.

Each of these includes a Delver deck. Some other article writers mention that Izzet will be their favorite as well.

Electromancer Delver in Standard
Standard Deckbuilding Featuring Return to Ravnica

Basically, this means that pros and non-pros alike are believing Delver strategies to still be strong enough to compete in Standard.

I will admit, however, that Izzet is not going to be one of my favorite strategies. Control is not my cup of tea and I've never been very good at it. I prefer Aggro decks and sometimes combo decks. Which is why I will be building token decks.

I will be updating these with Return to Ravnica once deckbox has them in its database

Esper Tokens (UWB)
Junk Tokens (GWB)
Chavest Tokens (RWB)

I might even build a bant version without Lingering Souls.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

First off, I'm not going the route of anything rotating as next week is an M13 draft at my LGS and then rotation is the next weekend, meaning there isn't much point in picking up any Beast Within or anything like that. Additionally, I wasn't getting too discouraged by losing, as I'd rather play an original idea and get destroyed than use the SAME crap everyone else is playing. I was discouraged to see the exact same three decks deck make up the entirety of the group :(.

That aside, I actually have to chuckle to some degree as I know at least imsully gave comments to the opposite of what's now being said about both decks. But I digress, I'm thinking the G/R likely isn't worth running outside of casual as it really requires a near perfect draw to be powerful. In this cases it certainly does work well (an 8/8 flyer on turn 3 is never a bad thing), but beyond those, I really need to figure out a secondary win-con or something.

To the debate between Increasing Savagery and Blessings of Nature I'm firmly rooted in the savagery camp - you pay four for five counters and you KNOW it will cost four. Blessings is a hit/miss card. You pull it for the miracle and it rocks, but otherwise, it's one more for one fewer counter (and you can't flash it back). Given that I'll likely be moving to G/B counter ramping with Corpsejack Menace in about two weeks I've spent a lot of time thinking about it.

For the G/W angels - it really is aimed to ramping for the angels. The only token generator is Thraben Doomsayer who is there to provide a) chump blockers or b) a guaranteed hit for Mentor of the Meek to help draw and c) a guarantee that you will have humans for Angelic Overseer. To that end, I'm tempted to drop Descendants' Path for more mentors and possibly Nearheath Pilgrim to keep the player alive until the angels start dropping. I'm resistant to the Rancor love fest for this deck because it's designed to ramp up to big flyers to begin with. And, as you said imsully, you drop a Gisela, Blade of Goldnight and the majority of games are done. The biggest problem I have here is that most the adjustments I'm looking at are in white, which knocks the balance even further away from green. But ideally you want to have green on turn one for the pilgrims. Perhaps some Nightshade Peddler to deter them from attacking or something.

For the delver debate - I can see where Dryad Militant will be in the sideboard for almost EVERY non-delver deck to reduce the threats of flashback - which would sort of kill your Burning Vengeance deck imsully. I don't see delver dropping off a ton, but I think that the guilds are going to pull enough players to different color combos that we MIGHT see something original here and there. I can say that Azorius is sitting on some SICK cards and yet almost nobody I've seen is talking about the guild... go figure. Detention Sphere alone is almost reason enough to play that guild.

Sillvva wrote:Rancor is not affected by any type of remove from battlefield effect regardless of destination.

I'm a little confused at what you're trying to say here..? There are definitely answers to Rancor, such as Erase. Also, if they Murder your targeted creature while Rancor is on the stack, it DOES go to and stay in the graveyard seeing as it never gets the chance to enter the battlefield due to an invalid target when it tries to resolve.

I guess I should have specified a little more. What I meant was, "while already enchanting your creature" if the "creature" is removed from the battlefield in any way...