This is pretty much the most anticipated Event deck for the year! (at least for the first half..) In Janurary 2014, The deck was announced by Wizards. Speculations have been going round forums and among players about what kind of deck and reprints we will be expecting to see. I had this discussion with a few fellow players and we had sort of agree in general that this will be a BW Token deck (Bingo!). There were other suggestions which included Faeries, TRON, Affinity, RDW and even Jund! Not sure why, but BW Tokens was more of the ripe picking for an Event Deck reprint. In my opinion, It's a good deck for an event deck for 3 reasons;
- Relative cheap deck to make; Most of the core cards are C/U staples. Assuming no Fetch/Shock landbase, the deck is quite cheap to make and play.
- Relative ease in piloting the deck; Yes, the deck require a certain level of skill, but which deck don't? It takes awhile to get the hang of it but once with enough practice, you'll see the potential threat of a good BW Token deck. The pressure with many small guys is just as (or probably more) annoying or dangerous as a big guy.
- It's no Tier 1 deck, but it's still a force to be reckoned with. Token decks are Dark horses in the metagame; no one expects them but still, yet having half-guesses in the existence in the meta. Thing is that if a Tier 1 deck is reprinted, Secondary market of the staples in that deck will be affected firstly, and with many people surely jumping in to buy off a pre-con deck like this, there is no more diversity in the metagame, since it's Tier 1 and well, everyone wants to win in an FNM or PT/GP right?.
We were expecting reprints of Fetchlands (Marsh Flats to be exact..), Token deck staples like Lingering Souls, Spectral Processions and even Path to Exile and Inquisition of Kozilek! (Bingo again!)
The first spoilers were Elspeth, Knight Errant, Honor of the Pure and Intangible Virtue. All are pretty much staples in a BW Token deck. We were speculating Marsh Flats and Bitterblossoms to be reprinted as the chase rares or value for buck cards...
Well, the guess is over. Here is the decklist below:
Main Deck
60 cards
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24 lands
5 creatures
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30 other spells
1 planeswalker
Sideboard
3 Duress
15 sideboard cards
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What do you think? Is it worth it? When I woke up earlier, I received hate messages from my playgroup about the Event deck. They hated the list because "It does not have anything like powerful Shock/Fetch land base and worse, where's the Bitterblossoms!!?" There is no Fetchlands or Bitterblossoms... Thus this means everything is crap.... Seriously? Personally, I honestly think it's a good deck for buy at its $74.99 MSRP. Look, it's not going to guarantee wins like how Pod or Jund decks might. (Ironically, they lost in the recent GPT..)
If you are like my friends who are only interested in the chase for Fetchlands/Shocklands in order for it to be called a good deck, hold on to that thought for a moment. The reason why I say it's a good buy is because the core of the deck is readily available and the deck by itself is playable. In my previous post, I mentioned that Modern decks can go up to $1000-1200 just to complete the deck. (I forgot to mention with Sideboard included.) at $74.99, the deck has ALL the core cards. Yes, ALL. The key cards are in exact playsets and honestly, that's a huge bonus in my opinion as normally event decks may not even have a full playset of anything or worse, have nothing which can be considered the core of a deck. Yes, some staples are missing from the deck, but honestly speaking, the other staples can be found easily with the right price if you really want them. At least you have the skeletal base or the primer of the deck already given as a package.
Landbase may be crap, but it's playable. Hey, be honest with yourself (and myself). How can Wizards print Marsh Flats at a $74.99 MSRP event deck an even if they do and they print 1, what sort of sense does it make? Also, we all know that Magic: the Gathering cards are getting an overhaul in the card design, with M15 being the first to be printed in the new design. With that in mind, why would they want to print such in the older border when the new design print is scheduled just around the corner away? On the same point, 4x Isolated Chapel, 4x Caves of Koilos, 4x Windbrisk Heights are pretty much difficult to source out thanks to the demand and the set they are printed in. (At least for my case here..) So, having them as budget options are pretty okay. City of Brass works well actually. If I were to change the deck, that would go but as a budget option, it's a good card. (Sadly Mana Confluence will be strictly better now)
The other cards thrown in are also great! Look! It's freaking Elspeth, Knight Errant!! It's the 2nd best Planeswalker printed! (YES I'm Biased! I'm an Elspeth fan!) No, Karn works only in TRON and Liliana goes for the 3rd in her irritating ability and just die after that. Sword of Feast and Famine is not a bad sword either. It's pro-colours are relevant and the abilities are devastating if used right. (Laugh now, Godsend.... or as for the matter, Sword of ... ugh.. nevermind...) Come on! Even Path to Exile and Inquisition of Kozilek is re-printed! If not for use in this deck, they are in HIGH demand in any deck that plays the similar colours!
The only crap part about this deck is probably the queer addition of Soul warden and some of the sideboard cards I would rather see. Why soul warden? Yes, you can take advantage of the creatures Entering the Battlefield to gain life, but wouldn't Auriok Champion be a better card? Yes, I would wish for Fracturing Gust or Stony Silence as these would be better cards as hates. Pithing Needle is also good. Maybe Wrath of God anyone? No, really, if you can pull off a Wrath in a Token deck, you can sometimes take advantage since most of the spells you cast will spawn at least 2 bodies. I would be like to add Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, Hero of Bladehold for the aggressive kick. Thoughtseize is priority as a replacement for Duress, though the latter actually works wonders and is severely underrated. But alas... budget is the mindset here. They already gave some incredible cards and really, you can't ask for more without going off the budget mindset here.
In short, I personally think if it's available at its MSRP or even below $200, grab it! It's a good deck on budget and is a relatively easy deck to pilot for beginners or players who are new to modern format and wanting to pick up a solid deck and test it. The deck do contain several staples for OTHER decks and some are severely underrated cards or cards that are being forgotten in the chase for more powerful stuff. I would buy 1 if I have the budget.. else I may skip this as I'm already building my own deck. Else worse case, you can just buy the deck and sell the Token staples to another guy who can't afford them and keep the other cool stuff for your own Cubes, EDH or for your own modern inventory/deck! Speaking of which... Sleeves, dice and a Deck Box is given too right?
Note: Yes I know MSRP does not mean the actual sales price... In fact at that price I can expect the event deck to be at around $500 price range. But, read above carefully, I said IF I can get them at MSRP price, my opinion holds as above. Otherwise, work out the value of the individual cards and see if it's worth buying at whatever price its sold at. Also take your budget and your playstyle into consideration before jumping for this event deck. BW Tokens are generally in the form of Aggro decks, which can also be disruptive as it's control style. If you don't like playing white weenie or aggro in general, consider avoiding this deck.
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