Hi before I delve into my random musings, I would like to apologize to everyone who reads this site. My last article was not what I wanted to be my first impression to everyone in this great MTGO community. I felt like I was taking cheap shots, and rather than backing them up with evidence I was just spouting off anger I had with myself. I want to apologize to the editors of this site who could have easily dismissed my article and not posted it. They could have left all the glaring mistakes I had in the original draft, but they showed a touch of class that I can only attempt to repay. I enjoy everyone who writes on the site, and I suppose when I would say that they were trying to go infinite, I was really just jealous that I can't get that far.

Lorwyn is upon us!

While every other author on this site has covered the majority of the bases of great cards, money cards, PDC cards, and casual cards, but there is one card I feel that is very much overlooked. Seedguide Ash is in my opinion the best card in the set. My favorite Magic card for multiplayer is Solemn Simulacrum. He does so much for so little. Seedguide Ash is like the natural progression of the Solemn Simulacrum legacy. For green decks, he is an efficient mid range beater that you're not afraid to throw into the fray. He creates interesting play interactions with cards like Nantuko Husk or Claws of Gix. He is a mana fixer, can fetch out those Ravnica dual forests. In my opinion this guy is easy to include in every green deck geared for multiplayer. I suggest getting some now while he is very under the radar. His only drawback is he has no evasion abilities and doesn't have a come into play effect, but his dying effect is worth it in almost every case.

You can't talk about Lorwyn without mentioning Planeswalkers. These guys will be amazing in multiplayer games. They also will command a premium price for a while, but I suspect they will drop down low enough to pick them up at around Ravnica dual land levels. I suspect the next set will also feature a couple of Planeswalkers, and possibly even specific Planeswalker hate. If you choose to play them in multiplayer expect swift resistance.

One other thing I've noticed lately about Lorwyn, people don't like tribal decks again. I've read some comments on how people have now posted "No Tribal" in addition to the usual restrictions in the casual room. The majority of the decks that I build for fun include tribes, and heck, tribes are fun to play and are very efficient with each other. I heard a story that people were conceding to things like Ponder or Llanowar Elves. I can understand why some players would become frustrated with facing the same decks all the time, but banning tribe decks? I don't like restrictions outside of base formats, and I don't particularly like playing in Standard Tribal, mostly because I think that there are so many ”conditional" creature types that the lines have been blurred. I do commend Wizards for creating a block that does not include any humans. Humans are the most abundant creature type in all of Magic, and it is a tragedy that all the decks we would see in Tribal tournaments is basically Human or Wizard decks just because of default. I fear, however, that this new "Changeling" ability will hurt the uniqueness of the format as it just seems like you can use the best changeling cards and not get any of the drawbacks of trying to go for a tribe.

Community Watch.

I don't want to repeat everything else that has been said about the set. I have a story to tell about the release event I played in. I hope they keep these No Top 8 but more payout queues. I had a hard time entering one and when I did the competition seemed a lot more intense and more like a prerelease atmosphere to them. I did, however, encounter one guy where he beat me the first game, the second game I switched out many cards and basically switched decks. I was called a cheater and I assume he reported me. All this because he had a bad draw with few land and I had land walkers for the two lands he did have.  Our community needs to be friendlier. Earlier in the week, I played in a 2HG extended match with a G/W Aggro deck. In fact here is the deck list:

8x Plains 6x Forest  4x Temple Garden 3x Brushland 2x Selesnya Sanctuary 4x Birds of Paradise 4x Civic Wayfinder 4x Savannah Lions 4x Watchwolf 4x Centaur Omenreader 2x Akroma, Angel of Wrath 2x Gleancrawler4x Condemn 4x Krosan Grip3x Umezawa's Jitte 3x Loxodon Warhammer

Pretty standard list in my opinion, I consider this a casual deck. Not because it uses suboptimal cards, it’s just fun to play and has many options to lay the beatdown. I was playing this deck in a 2HG match and some guy called me a "Noob" because I was playing a G/W Aggro. I was also called names for the cards I was playing and even how I was playing the cards. I only say this because it is as silly as it sounds. If you catch yourself saying words like this, please reconsider and realize what you are saying. I also believe the Casual 1v1 room has become unbearably out of hand. If you go in there with any kind of control style deck you are considered the enemy and many players will just quit. I've had many quit against me because I played an Island. I ask you all that play in the casual rooms to play against all kinds of decks. If you start encountering heavy control decks, play with Trinisphere or Scragnoth. If you are encountering a lot of discard effects, play madness cards. If you are encountering a lot of burn style decks or land destruction decks, play with non land mana sources or cards that are efficient for their price. I subscribe to a belief that many writers on other sites live by, if you are playing a deck that would win consistently in queues or PEs play that deck there, don't hang around the casual room looking for easy wins. That doesn't make you a better Magic player; it just makes you look like an idiot. Same goes for people advertising no LD or counters, if you're deck just rolls over to a few counterspells maybe you need to retool the deck. Here is something however I don't like seeing is people getting mad when someone concedes when it is fairly obvious who is going to win the game. For example, if you have no way to stop a Worldgorger Dragon combo then you have every right to say something like "Excuse me, but I can't stop the combo, do you mind if I concede?" and then just concede.

Theme Time

I had a great idea from one of the authors on this site about  "spicing" up you're MTGO experience by creating decks focusing more on themes and fun, rather then the well-oiled machines we usually spit out. I've been building decks like these for several years now. The one I'm going to focus on today is a mono blue aggro deck I built last week. The main theme I used for the deck is Time Spiral’s out of the box color pie theory. I used the obvious Flying Men/ Unstable Mutation combo and basically built a standard "White Weenie" style deck with creature pumps, card draw, and even a few direct damage spells. There is only one card in the deck making it from being standard legal. I use Power Conduit for removing Unstable Mutation counters. Well without further ado, here's the deck list:

16x Island 4x Terramorphic Expanse4x Errant Ephemeron 4x Flying Men 4x Rootwater Commando 4x Serra Sphinx 4x Sprite Noble 4x Power Conduit 4x Ancestral Vision 4x Psionic Blast 4x Cancel 4x Unstable Mutation

This deck can win very quickly and efficiently. It also can get hosed if it doesn't get its better creatures out and card draw going. It is a very fun deck to play and will definitely make for some fun plays. Yes it’s a very simple deck by design, but it is fun to play and sometimes that’s all that matters.

That’s all I have to say for this time, next time I promise to finally build that bear deck (with all natural bears, no changelings) I keep yapping about. Remember to have fun, and build decks that you like to play and don't compromise for anyone else's restriction. I have to admit that I had a hard time finishing this article. I had it almost finished twice and forgot to save it. But alas, I figured it out. I had a hard time getting onto the system this week during release week, or I would have had another deck list to report. But that’s another story for another time. Have fun and thanks everyone for reading and catch me on MTGO my name is Urzishra14.