Personal Challenge: Guild deck builds

James13

I was inspired by a coalition mate to run some Ravnican Guild inspired decks each day for standard TG.  I have found it a lot of fun and wanted to share a little here.

My personal challenge outline: Use a walker with (only) the colors of the guild.  Deck must be comprised of only guild appropriate cards from either the GRN or RNA set.  No other cards or cross-guild cards.

So far I did Gruul and Simic days yesterday and today.

My Gruul deck (4-0): Walker: Samut (R/G)

• Gruul Guildgate
• Stomping Ground
• Cindervines
• Rhythm of the Wild
• Thrash
• Zhur-Taa Goblin
• Gruul Speelbreaker
• Clan Guildmage
• Ravager Wurm
• Sunder Shaman

My Simic deck (4-1): Walker: Nissa3 (U/G)

• Simic Guildgate
• Breeding Pool
• Simic Ascendancy
• Incubation
• Applied Biomancy
• Titanic Brawl
• Incubation Druid
• Hydroid Krasis
• Combine Guildmage
• Experiment Kraj

I'm interested to see what kinds of decks others may construct as I find limited challenges interesting and refreshing.  I plan to continue to cycle through the guilds on Standard TG.  Limited to just guild appropriate one set only can be a construction challenge.

OmegaLolrus

I usually do the exact same thing... It's been pretty fun for me.

Angrath: Rakdos Rave

Rafter Demon

Murder

Skewer the Critics

Clear the Sage

Lyzolda, the Blood Witch

Macabre Mockery

Cryptborn Horror

Rakdos the Defiler

Gutterbones

Carnival // Carnage

Sorin: Syndicate Extortion

Orzhov Guildgate

Teysa, Orzhov Scion

Orzhov Enforcer

Ministrant of Obligation

Orzhov Racketeers

Revival // Revenge

Ill-Gotten Inheritance

Consecrate // Consume

Font of Agonies

Final Payment

Teferi: Senatorial Mandate

Emergency Powers

Sphinx of Foresight

Dovin's Acuity

Arrester's Admonition

Depose // Deploy

Azorius Guildgate

Isperia the Inscrutable

Sphinx of New Prahv

Absorb

Persistent Petitioners

Those are the three I'm working on the most right now. It is a really beautiful thing when Rakdos attacks and kills three creatures while Angrath's ult is up. 25 damage in one swing. And then Carnage for another two hits of six.

For Sorin, it's not a great deck, but I don't have a great selection of Orzhov cards yet. I like the Teferi deck, but I don't think I can split it between Isperia and the Petitioners. One Isperia hits the field, it's sphinxes for days. And it is really fun to see Teferi's ult up and hit Emergency Powers.

But I've got Ajani 2 for Selesnya, Vraska 2 for Golgari, Saheeli for Izzet (though I do run the Weatherlight in there, which doesn't fit), Kiora for Simic, and I'm looking to get Samut and Tahiri for Gruul and Boros respectively. Pretty much all planeswalkers that either hate Bolas, or will probably side against him. The only problem is Dimir, which I've slotted Tezzeret 2 in for. I assume after Bolas fiddled with his brain around, he doesn't much like Bolas... even if he's enslaved to his will.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

James13

starfall said:

James13 said:

• Experiment Kraj

Does Kraj play without lag for you? You must have a very new phone, perhaps?

S7.  Seems fine?

Unknown

This content has been removed.

James13

Back on actual topic.  I want to discuss fun decks. 

Rakdos deck (4-0): Walker Angrath

• Rakdos Guildgate
• Blood Crypt
• Bedeck
• Bedevil
• Consign to the Pit
• Macabre Mockery
• Rafter Demon
• Spikewheel Acrobat
• Cult Guildmage
• Rakdos the Showstopper

Hopefully not too hyperbolic sounding, but this has been a TON of fun for me thus far.  Reignited some interest I didn't know had waned.

As a sidenote, the Guildmages are super solid and synergistic in every deck thus far.  In this one in particular, he was always pinging the opponent and played very well with Angrath's ultimate (and Showstopper's gem action).

James13

Completed my run of the RNA guilds this week after taking a break from all TG over the weekend due to hosting out of town guests.

Azorious Deck (4-0) : Walker Teferi (I probably should have used Dovin1 in retrospect)

• Azorious Skyguard
• Isperia the Inscrutable
• Senate Guildmage
• Unbreakable Formation
• Depose
• Warrant
• Arrester's Admonition
• Lawmage's Binding
• Sphinx's Insight
• Azorius Guildgate

(This could have been optimized better.  Ran slow but solid.  I wasn't sure if Angel of Grace would be considered Azorius and have thus far failed to loot Hallowed Fountain.)  Teferi's ultimate bailed me out of one match vs a Bolas1, but otherwise I didn't really need him specifically and sat on his loyalty.


Orzhov Deck (4-0): Walker Sorin (the only Black-White option currently)

• Orzhov Guildgate
• Godless Shrine
• Tithe Taker
• Tesya, Orzhov Scion
• Seraph of the Scales
• Ministrant of Obligation
• Revival
• Mortify
• Final Payment
• Undercity's Embrace

I wasn't expecting this one to be a clean sweep, honestly.  The first match was grindy.  The lack of added draw for this guild had me concerned.  I do think Sorin's ultimate helped considerably as a closer.  I wasn't sure if Undercity embrace was "Orzhov", but the life gain clause seemed to imply it was to me (tithing mechanic).

I'll probably move on to GRN guilds next.

Feel free me join me in the challenge series if you want!  It's actually quite fun.

You don't have to be as restrictive as I was with my self-imposed rules (RNA cards only; only cards themed to the guild specifically)

wereotter

Haven't played with the deck yet, still tinkering with the idea, also hope this counts since I'm restricing my colors even more, also still chasing a couple cards.

Lilana, Death's Majesty:

Teysa Karlov

Knight of the Last Breath

Seraph of the Scales

Orzhov Pontiff

Ethereal Absolution

Godless Shrine

Font of Agonies

Mortify

Consecrate/Consume

Undercity's Embrace

Plenty of cards that are black and white. Lili seems the best fit for the Orzhov mechanic since she can kill your creatures to trigger afterlife while returning them right into play. Shame she can't use any of the mono-white cards for the mechanic.

James13

Very nice @wereotter

I like the idea of using Liliana for the afterlife triggers.  On my pass I chose walkers specifically with the guild colors.  When revisiting guilds it would be nice to be more synergistic.

I imagine dipping Pontiff through the graveyard was fairly entertaining.

Afterlife struck me, personally, as the least interesting of the guild mechanisms.  Maybe tied with addendum which was kinda awkward, but at least varied.  Probably Simic adaptation felt the most "fun" to play in a sense.  Impactful and doing stuff throughout the match on the board and on the creatures.

James13

I'm going to go ahead and bump this one last time to close it out by posting the remaining decks for the GRN cycle.

Once again: my personal challenge was to build a guild themed deck using only guild appropriate cards from the single set in question.  For slight flavor I used a dual colored walker in guild colors for each build.


Boros guild - Walker Nahiri (4-0)

Boros Guildgate
Sacred Foundry
Justice Strike
Response
Crush Contraband
Truefire Captain
Swiftblade Vindicator
Legion Warboss
Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice
Razia, Boros Archangel

Nothing really to say here.  This was straightforward.  Mentor played a slight role in buffing Vindicator.  But this was basically fairly mindless beatdown.

Dimir Guild - Walker Tezzeret 2 (4-0)

Dimir Guildgate
Watery Grave
Disinformation Campaign
Circu, Dimir Lobotomist
Etrata, the Silencer
Lazav, the Multifarious
Connive
Unexplained Disappearance
Deadly Visit
Glimpse the Unthinkable

Like Boros, this deck was really solid even in such a restricted format.  Surveil is a very strong mechanic.  Discard control is so fun to play, I think.

Selesnya Guild - Walker Huatli 2 (4-0)

Selesnya Guildgate
Temple Garden
Knight of Autumn
Trostani Discordant
Tolsimir Wolfblood
March of the Multitudes
Flower
Assure
Sworn Companions
Chord of Calling

Once again, very solid.  The guild convoke mechanic doesn't play too much here, but the options are all overwhelming strong.  It's still a strong guild mechanic and tokens are having a heyday in the current meta.  Assure is a great, great card.

Golgari Guild - Walker Vraska 1 (4-0)

Golgari Guildgate
Overgrown Tomb
Hatchery Spider
Glowspore Shaman
Swarm Guildmage
Sisters of Stone Death
Underrealm Lich
Status
Assasin's Trophy
Mausoleum Secrets

This was kinds mixed.  I missed having access to some other set tricks for graveyard loading.  But it still worked well.  Mausoleum Secrets and Spider provided some sorely needed fetch options.  Sisters did a lot of work when they arrived to the party.  There were some stalls in the run, but player advantage is strong so I could wrest control back.  Some minor interesting tech was using Status offensively to give opponent creatures defender for Sister's ability when activation matches were not convenient.
This one wasn't super strong, but it was very interesting to play in action.

And last and possibly least...

Izzet Guild - Walker Ral (4-1)

Izzet Guildgate
Steam Vents
Goblin Electromancer
League Guildmage
Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
Radical Idea
Direct Current
Inescapable Blaze
Beacon Bolt
Gravitic Punch

Oh my god.  While Izzet is super strong, it is PAINFUL in this restricted format without other set access.  It really desperately wants cards/spells from elsewhere (BSZ being an obvious one).  I really should have lost more than 1, but snatched victory a couple times simply due to the Ral ultimate.  I really think he's the only reason it worked at all.  The Izzet spell pool in GRN really blows and Jumpstart is underwhelming even in better mixes.  Shoutouts to Beacon bolt anyway, though.
It's very odd Izzet intrinsically has no real answer to opponent creatures other than damage tickles.  Destroys and Bounces are all elsewhere.
This went through a few tweaks before I settled on this loadout.

James13

In closing, I would say Izzet was the worst guild of all to play in the context of my restricted challenge.

Most fun is kinda a tossup.  I had surprising fun with Rakdos, Simic, and to a lesser extent Golgari.

I think Simic had some of the most fun play mechanics overall.  So that probably gets my nod.

Strongest I might say either Dimir or Selesnya.  Dimir for pure match control, Selesnya as an unstoppable growing wave of threat and lifegain.

wereotter

James13 said:

Very nice @wereotter

I like the idea of using Liliana for the afterlife triggers.  On my pass I chose walkers specifically with the guild colors.  When revisiting guilds it would be nice to be more synergistic.

I imagine dipping Pontiff through the graveyard was fairly entertaining.

Afterlife struck me, personally, as the least interesting of the guild mechanisms.  Maybe tied with addendum which was kinda awkward, but at least varied.  Probably Simic adaptation felt the most "fun" to play in a sense.  Impactful and doing stuff throughout the match on the board and on the creatures.

I was working with the Pontiff as a speculative add to that deck, I actually only got him just yesterday, and I have to say, yeah, he's really fun. What's especially nice is that he, as a creature, is one that if you have Knight of the Last Breath or Teysa, Orzhov Scion in play actually gives you a higher attack power in play on your two remaining creatures after you dip him in the graveyard than you had before (assuming he's only been reinforced once) since both your other creatures get +2/+2 and you get 4 spirit tokens. Giving your opponent's creatures -2/-2 isn't bad either.