mono White
ISD Block, M13, RTR Set
1. This is now a foundation deck mostly composed of ISD Block and a few M13 cards. White, with Red is one of my two neglected colors.
ISD Block, M13, RTR Set
1. I continue to find new homes for the nice range of blue cards that I played with in ISD block, and as ISD block + M13. This deck as well as some others I am playing now have no or almost no RTR cards, and provide a fun foundation for decks in the near future as I get more RTR cards.
mono Black
ISD Block, M13, RTR Set
1. This is my favorite Johnny deck (and I am a Johnny). I have even been able to hard cast my one Griselbrand with it. I now have a play set of Curse of Death's Hold. I know its overkill and that this deck only stands a chance against the weakest of the weak blue tournament decks and nothing else, but its a Johnny deck, and when it wins, it wins big.
2. This deck has done really well in tournament practice: it loses late in the game. By now almost any deck that is not a Restoration Angel/Thragtusk/Loxodon deck, or is not some type of a Geist of Saint Traft deck, or is not a Red Deck Wins (RDW) deck just does not have a chance to win. This is the nature of tournament play: a few decks take over, and all other decks run for cover! Still, I have had lots of fun playing this deck: my $15 deck against their $200 deck.
mono Red
ISD Block, M13, RTR Set
1. With white this is one of my two neglected colors. This deck does not stand a chance in tournament practice. As I say about my weakest decks, it is a "foundation" deck, meaning it always loses. I have no idea where I pulled the Foil Chandra: I will use it!
mono Green
ISD Block, M13, RTR Set
1. I love this deck. I have played many of these cards in ISD Block play and really enjoy playing them. It is even not completely losing in tournament practice as my other "foundation" decks are.
I wish I could design an artifact-only deck, but I am not sure that is possible with five sets in Standard. Maybe when the third RTR block set is out?
mono Artifact
ISD Block, M13, RTR Set
1. Finally!Here is a Rough Artifact-only Deck in Preparation for Gatecrash. Incredibly enough, this deck sort of works.... surprising! I only have a playable one-drop artifact creature and a two-drop Defender artifact creature. If a few more one drop and two drop artifact creatures are issued in the next three sets this deck could actually work. Right now it is nothing more than a casual experiment.
The two-color decks have a simple range between the two colors chosen. At one extreme is the fastest, or most aggressive (aggro) deck that can be built, and at the other extreme is the slowest or most control-like deck that can be built. There are also extremes that belong to each color, such as small and powerful creatures (white), big and game-ending creatures (green).
Boros (red/white)
ISD Block, M13, RTR Set
1. What do I get when I combine the two colors I have neglected into one deck: pure silliness. This deck is a real dud, even with a lucky Gisela pull. The bots could help me a lot on this one. Boros is a sleeper deck that will roar when Gatecrash comes out.
2. Boros Deck in Preparation for Gatecrash. This casual deck is not nearly as downright terrible as my previous attempt at White Red. Gisela is very heavy and I hard-cast it seldom, but when I do....boy, it rocks.
Golgari (green/black)
ISD Block, M13, RTR Set
1. I already have a very nice selection of playable cards from the ISD block. Here is a foundation deck to build on with additional RTR cards in the future.
Selesnya (green/white)
ISD Block, M13, RTR Set
1. A midrange design with 4-Ajani, 2-Sigarda, 2-Restoration Angel, 2-Thragtusk, 2-Armada Wurm. This deck has the obligatory Oblivion Rings and Rancors.
2. Selesnya deck online with cards I pulled in the online prerelease. I have also updated it multiple times as I add more RTR cards.
3. Sealed Experiment: the Selesnya intro pack and three booster packs. Here is the punch-line: a Standard Constructed deck is either weak when it comes out of an intro pack-and it is supposed to because the intro pack is designed to introduce the game to new players; or incomplete when you add three packs on top of the two that come with the intro pack. A better sealed experiment for Standard Constructed could be from two intro packs and five additional boosters: two 60 card decks and 9 booster backs. Of course, no sane Local Game Store (LGS) would ever run such a format because the cards alone would cost $26 for the two intro packs and $20 for the additional booster packs: that's close to $50!
Dimir (blue/black)
ISD Block, M13, RTR Set
1. Just in time to build this deck I bought two online packs and pulled an additional M13 Liliana. This is my favorite deck: Blue Black. Like any of my decks, it has some nice cards, but is not moneyed up like most decks in tournament practice. I am not planning to spend the money needed to be at tournament level.
2. Dimir Deck in Preparation for Gatecrash. I am not excited about Cipher, the Dimir ability in Gatecrash, and maybe it is because I do not yet understand this new mechanic. This deck is another casual build with an emphasis on milling.
Orzhov (white/black)
ISD Block, M13, RTR Set
1. Rough Orzhov Deck in Preparation for Gatecrash. This deck is very unfinished. In casual play it is a bomb, but in tournament play it is a consistent loser. The deck is trying multiple strategies but does not have a finisher in any of them:
1. Play lots of enchantments leading to Sphere of Safety.
2. Cause lots of discard to play Shrieking Affliction.
3. Pack Rat (need I say more!!!).Its a rough start all right.
If I try to improve on any of these three strategies the other two become unworkable.
Izzet (blue/red)
ISD Block, M13, RTR Set
1. Online deck based on an intro pack.
2. Izzet Deck in Preparation for Gatecrash. This deck is all about one-drop enchantments, Invisible Stalker and Guttersnipe.
Gruul (red/green)
ISD Block, M13, RTR Set
1. Rough Gruul Deck in Preparation for Gatecrash. I love this deck in 'standard just for fun.'
Azorius (white/blue)
ISD Block, M13, RTR Set
1. Azorious Deck in Preparation for Gatecrash. I am missing most of the Azorious bombs. This is a most casual of casual builds.
Rakdos (black/red)
ISD Block, M13, RTR Set
1. After my not so exciting experiment with 3 RTR packs and the Selesnya intro pack (which comes with 2 additional packs), I tried out a new mix: two packs for each big set in standard, for one for each small one. That's two of ISD, AVR, M13, and RTR and one DKA pack. I made some incredible pulls, including the new Jace and my third Nicol Bolas!!! I won't even show the latter because I have only included it in a dozen other posts. With a total of nine packs this selection can be used to build at least one standard deck in which I am not just using everything I pulled.
2. Online deck based on an intro pack. I have updated it by adding a few rats.
3. Similar to 2 above, now based on Vampires and Stormkik Captain. I love build-around decks.
Simic (green/blue)
ISD Block, M13, RTR Set
1. Green is the best color to feed mana to a deck, and blue is the best color to slow the opponent down. Here is a foundation deck waiting for Gatecrash. I have updated it with more online cards and slowed it down with a few mana-feeding walls.
Using three colors makes for a complex build. Not only do you have a three-dimensional way to be either extremely aggressive or annoyingly controlling, but you have choices in how you blend each color. You can aim for (1/3, 1/3, 1/3) or anything else that adds to 1. Jund rules in ISD block because of the combination of ISD Garruk (starts out green, and then can flip to black-Golgari) and DKA Huntmaster of the Fells (Gruul: green/red).
Bant (White Green Blue)
ISD Block, M13, RTR Set
Esper (Blue White Black)
ISD Block, M13, RTR Set
1. Esper Deck in Preparation for Gatecrash. This is the last of my casual decks just before Gatecrash arrives. It is most casual...
Grixis (Black Blue Red)
ISD Block, M13, RTR Set
1. A very rough design attempt using Olivia Voldaren and Rakdos. This deck needs a lot of work. Because there are three colors, there are many ways to go. I can emphasize the control aspect by boosting blue, or emphasize taking life by boosting red, or kill lots of creatures by boosting black. Grixis is a very complex build!
2. The Seven Ways of Grixis is my preparation to design seven decks around the two Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker cards I pulled from Target packs.
3. Grixis with Dimir Emphasis deck online...which loses a lot and gets mana locked way too often....
4. Grixis Midrange: much better mana balance, but too slow for the fast decks now out. After some fine-tuning and giving money to the bots for a few additional cards, here is the link to the optimized deck. Its not tournament quality but it does keep me in play in tournament practice. I can add better cards later but I don't want to spend more money on this deck.
Jund (Red Black Green)
ISD Block, M13, RTR Set
1. Jund Deck in Preparation for Gatecrash. I put in one-drop enchantments for red, green, and black, and tried to use mana feeders in green. The mana base for this casual deck is seriously lacking.
Naya (Green Red White)
ISD Block, M13, RTR Set
1. Naya Deck in Preparation for Gatecrash. I am really getting into casual Naya. I hope I pull some nice Boros cards for Gatecrash to fine tune this casual deck.
