In this article I will be examining the various decks Ravnica block can offer us (of course looking only at Ravnica: City of Guilds).
Many of you will be wondering whether it's prudent to start examining a Block Constructed format with only one expansion out. Well, my opinion is that Guildpact and Dissension won't add too many things in decks that are made from Ravnican cards (for the rest of the article: whenever I mention Ravnica, Ravnican etc. I will mean something relevant to the expansion Ravnica: City of Guilds, not the whole block, unless I state it). That is so because of the 4/3/3 seperation. Sure, a W/G deck can benefit from cards in the future expansions, but it won't be defined by them. Especially in the case of weenies (theoretically), since both the W/B and the W/U guild, are bound to be controlish, so I don't think that we will be getting lots of high quality weenies over the other expansions. I'm not saying that we won't get any at all, and by all means if Savannah Lions are reprinted it will find a home in Weenies, but if for example GWeenie isn't good enough, just a good critter won't be able to take it over the top. At least I think so... Feel free to disagree. The decklists I provide are not tested and I am very sure that they are not the optimum ones. I am just brainstorming.
Now that we are past the introduction, let's jump to the matter at hand:


As I dearly hope you've noticed, Ravnica doesn't support the five usual colors, but instead four color pairs. As Mark Rosewater himself said, he wanted Ravnica Block to have 10 "colors". In the first expansion we only get four of them. These color pairs, of course, guide us in certain directions for deckbuilding. Before I follow them, I feel like I must set a ground rule. I won't try out any mono-colored decks, as I think that it would be silly of someone to deny himself (at least) a second color, since a solid two-color base will be so easy to achieve. It's Block Constructed... Your mana base will be stellar if you have only one color... your card pool won't.
So, without further ado...


*Two deck types that traditionally belong to the two colors get jumbled up in a single deck... That would be a RWeenie (R/W Weenie). It features small, quick creatures and direct damage. Weenie has been an archetype that Wizards has been pushing for a long time now, and it seems that they didn't stop the effort in Ravnica. Let's see a first try at a Ravnican RWeenie.

RWeenie
*Lands* 8x Plains 9x Mountain 4x Sacred Foundry *Creatures* 3x Boros Recruit 2x Courier Hawk 4x Boros Swiftblade 2x Thundersong Trumpeter 4x Boros Guildmage 4x Skyknight Legionnaire	*Enchantments* 3x Galvanic Arc *Artifacts* 4x Sunforger *Instants* 4x Lightning Helix 4x Char 1x Bathe in Light 4x Rally the Righteous

Verdict: Block Constructed
Well, as everybody can see my take on the deck is focused on Sunforger. You have a healthy selection of instants to choose and creatures that can utilize it (such as a Boros Swiftblade). The Boros actually lack a very big number of good weenies (which is weird actually since they are the police), so it's more of an aggro/burn than a true Weenie. If you will, you could up the mana a bit putting Argus Kos a couple (or triple) of times. And maybe you could focus more on creatures, less on burn...

*Following that, lets raise the mana curve a bit (something that I will be doing a lot of times in this article), to get a generic Boros Beats.

Boros Beats
*Lands* 7x Mountain 7x Plains 4x Sacred Foundry 3x Boros Garrison 2x Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion *Creatures* 4x Skyknight Legionnaire 4x Loxodon Gatekeeper 4x Hunted Dragon 2x Firemane Angel	*Instant* 4x Lightning Helix 4x Char *Sorcery* 3x Razia's Purification *Artifact* 4x Boros Signet

Verdict: Block Constructed
For starters I must say that the hunted cycle has some funny synergy with Loxodon Gatekeeper, basically disabling them for the round you cast the hunted one. In general this deck acts like an aggro-burn. Razia's Purification is there to balance Hunted Dragon's disadvantage, and to add a small control factor in the deck (burns aside!). I know that some people dislike Firemane Angel, so you could just go ahead and replace her with Hunted Lammasu if it's more to your liking...


Three deck types can rise from the nature-cult (actually make that five archetypes, but I talk about that later). All of them involve lots and lots of creatures...
*The first one is a GWeenie. A rule of thumb that I keep for tagging a "Weenie" title over something is that all of the spells have to cost 3 or less, except for a playset that can cost (at most) 4. I tend to tag decks that have a higher mana-curve as "beats" (see below). Unlike RWeenie, GWeenie is a more "regular" type of weenie, with global boost and lots of creatures. It could look something like this:

GWeenie
*Lands* 9x Plains 8x Forest 4x Temple Garden *Creatures* 3x Boros Recruit 3x Transluminant 4x Courier Hawk 4x Veteran Armorer 4x Watchwolf 4x Selesnya Guildmage	*Instants* 3x Wojek Siren 3x Bathe in Light *Enchantments* 4x Fists of Ironwood 3x Moldervine Cloak *Artifacts* 4x Crown of Convergence

Verdict: Block Constructed
As I said, the deck focuses on pure beatdown, and it's quite good at it! Starting with a turn 1 Boros Recruit (unfortunately the only decent 1st round drop you have...), turn 2 Watchwolf, turn 3 Crown of Convergence, you can do nasty things quite quicky! Of course, someone could add a couple of Hierarchs main or in the sideboard...

*Following that, and heightening the curve a bit we could have a W/G beats.
Now, W/G Beats wants to win the same way as a GWeenie, but follows a different road to do that. That's of course the route of the fatties and the mana acceleration. And since G is in the game, why don't make a splash or two? Let's see what a deck like that could look like.

Selesnya Beats
*Lands* 9x Plains 10x Forest 4x Temple Garden *Creatures* 4x Birds of Paradise 4x Civic Wayfinder 4x Loxodon Hierarch 4x Loxodon Gatekeeper 3x Golgari Brownscale 3x Tolsimir Wolfblood 3x Hunted Lammasu 4x Watchwolf	*Instants* 4x Devouring Light *Sorceries* 4x Farseek *Enchantments* 4x Moldervine Cloak

Verdict: Block Constructed
There aren't many things in the deck that require explaining... I love the Brownscale for some reason, and he gives you a very nice tempo-gain against other aggro decks. I usually dislike using the hunted creatures, since most of the can give the opponent massive board advantage, but I like Hunted Lamassu, since he gives only one creature to your opponent. You can just leave it off if you don't like it though. Now, should you decide to take a splashed road I could think of either:
a. Red splash
Lightning Helix, Firemane Angel, and Razia's Purification are all fine choices. The Helix is a great all around card, fitting into all strategies. Firemane is a very nice critter with evasion and a tempo boost against aggro. Purification gives a control element to the deck, and since you're bound to have bigger threats than a Weenie deck, it could be a nice choice.
b. Black Splash
Putrefy, Grave-shell Scarab, Elves of the Deep Shadow and Gleancrawler are your weapons in this path. The Elves give you a mana boost (and to some extent, mana-fixing). Putrefy is an all-around great removal spell. Finally. the Scarab is a great recurring creature that will give you board advantage in the long run. Gleancrawler is a fattie-fat-fat-fat that can gain you some card advantage, which is never bad.
c. Ultimately, you could still stay Selesnyan only
You could keep the list I mentioned above, but some other fine choices include Vinelasher Kudzu, Congregation at Dawn and Gleancrawler.
A final note on this type of deck (something that could be said for the GolgaBeats too) is that since the deck contains green, as the new expansions become available, it is possible that splashes could be made with the other colors too.

*Finally, are there not lots of cards that can have some synergy with tokens? Hm... Heck... There are several different roads that one can follow using tokens! Convoke, Doubling Season, Glare of Subdual... you name it!

Token-Convokers
*Lands* 8x Plains 8x Forest 4x Temple Garden 3x Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree *Creatures* 4x Birds of Paradise 3x Selesnya Enavgel 4x Selesnya Guildmage 2x Autochton Wurm 1x Blazing Archon 1x Oathsworn Giant 2x Tolsimir Wolfblood	*Instants* 2x Devouring Light 4x Scatter the Seeds 4x Chord of Calling *Sorceries* 4x Hour of Reckoning *Enchantments* 4x Fists of Ironwood *Artifacts* 2x Selesnya Signet

Verdict: Block Constructed
The strategy for this deck is pretty obvious. You generate lots of tokens, through many ways. Once you have enough you can either overrun the opponent (especially after an Hour of Reckoning) or after convoking out a Tolsimir, convoke an Autocthon Wurm (yes, it is possible...) or convoke an Archon out. Oathsworn Giant helps you a lot against weenies and the mirror match. All in all it's quite funny, if a bit slow.

Doubling Tokens
*Lands* 8x Plains 8x Forest 4x Temple Garden 3x Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree *Creatures* 4x Birds of Paradise 3x Twilight Drover 4x Selesnya Enavgel 4x Selesnya Guildmage *Instants* 4x Scatter the Seeds	*Sorceries* 4x Farseek 4x Hour of Reckoning *Enchantments* 4x Fists of Ironwood 4x Doubling Season *Artifacts* 2x Selesnya Signet

Verdict: Casual, Multiplayer
This deck is ALL about tokens. The previous version didn't depend that much on you tokens for the win... This one surely does. This particular build had the least chance of ever becoming a good tournament deck, but it's very funny to play (especially if you like lots and lots of tokens)! It has fewer one-shot effects and more continuous Saproling-producers. It also has lots of mana acceleration, since you want to cast that Doubling Season ASAP.

Glare the Saproling
*Lands* 8x Plains 8x Forest 4x Temple Garden 3x Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree *Creatures* 4x Birds of Paradise 4x Selesnya Enavgel 4x Selesnya Guildmage 4x Gleancrawler *Instants* 4x Scatter the Seeds 3x Devouring Light	*Enchantments* 4x Fists of the Ironwood 4x Glare of Subdual *Sorcery* 3x Hour of Reckoning *Artifacts* 3x Selesnya Signet

Verdict: Block Constructed
This one has the most chances of ever becoming a tournament staple, or at least, I think so. It depends, of course, on casting a Glare of Subdual and having at least one more creature than your opponent. That's the reason why I included so many Gleancrawlers. If only one of your creatures can attack, let it at least be a 6/6! Plus he reaturns creatures to you hand and that's always good with Selesnya Evangel and Selesnya Guildmage, especially since you don't need haste to tap them to Glare of Subdual!


So, after the tree-huggers come the Unseen. The Dimir were a disappointment for many tournament players, since instead of some very powerful control strategy, Wizards focused the Dimir on a nice, but slow style of play: decking your opponent.
*Mill decks seem to be too slow to work for Standard, especially since weenies and general aggro seems to have gained some good ground. But this is Block constructed... Things are bound to be slower, no? Let's see...

Dimir Control/Mill
*Lands* 4x Swamp 4x Island 3x Dimir Aqueduct 4x Watery Grave 4x Overgrown Tomb 1x Duskmantle, House of Shadow *Creatures* 3x Szadek, Lord of Secrets 3x Vulturous Zombie 3x Circu, Dimir Lobotomist *Instants* 4x Telling Time 3x Muddle the Mixture 3x Putrefy 3x Perplex	*Sorceries* 4x Glimpse the Unthinkable 4x Recollect 2x Tunnel Vision *Artifacts* 4x Golgari Signet 2x Dimir Signet

Verdict: Casual, Borderline Block Constructed
This deck really depends on how good your hand is, and how lucky you are (or how unlucky your opponent is) when you mill something out of your opponent. Generally your point isn't to mill through some spell, but either win via Szadek, or cast a Vulturous Zombie, gigantify it (through, let's say, a couple of Glimpse the Unthinkable), and attack. You can mill your opponent in a more "normal" way though. You have access to lots of glimpses, either with transmuting Muddle the Mixture or by Recollecting it. Tunnel Vision can almost deck your opponent by itself if you are a bit lucky and you pay attention to the cards that your opponent is playing. Perplex is a hard counter at the beginning of the game that can turn into Recollect or Putrefy later in the game. In general it's a cute deck, only a bit slow. Another version could include Eye of the Storm to go for the win, chaining Glimpse the Unthinkables...

*Now, following a quite different route to victory we get a Dimir aggro strategy. Let's see how this one turns out.

Dimir Beats
*Lands* 10x Swamp 9x Island 4x Watery Grave *Creatures* 4x Dimir Guildmage 4x Dimir Infiltrator 3x Necroplasm 4x Dimir Cutpurse 4x Keening Banshee 4x Moroii 3x Woebringer Demon	*Instants* 4x Telling Time 4x Last Gasp *Enchantments* 4x Clinging Darkness

Verdict: Block Constructed
Of course you can't have the acceleration of a beats deck containing Green, so you must have some focus on creature control. Actually, most of the cards have some kind of creature control in a very straightforward manner. Other than that, it's either card advantage or just plain beatsticks. Dimir Infiltrator is there, not only because he is a nice blocker/unblockable pinger, but also because he can turn to removal, or library manipulation. Clinging Darkness is there because of your inability to deal with big threats. I know it isn't perfect, but at least it will turn an opponent's biggie into a wall. Against control decks, one might also consider Circu, Dimir Lobotomist. As a final note on this deck, I would like to talk about Dark Confidant. He is nicely costed, and has a decent body. He also has build-in card advantage. But I really wouldn't play him in a deck that doesn't have a playset of Sensei's Divining Top. And besides not having the Top, it has a quite big possibility to draw 3, 4, and 5 cmc cards... That's lot of life. One could also try a Hunted Phantasm, maybe in Woebringer Demon's stead. I generally dislike the Hunted ones, but unblockability is a very big boon. Plus the deck has quite a lot of removal to handle some small Gobbos...


So, still sticking to Black and evil things, we come to the Golgari, the last guild that we will cover in this article. The Golgari have a very nifty keyword, which makes most of the cards containing it bombs in draft and sealed deck. Can the same be said about Block Constructed? We will see...

*The first thing that comes in mind when thinking Golgari is Rock. Rock in Extended is a very good control deck and it really shines in metagames that are heavy on creatures (especially Goblins)... Of course, the extended Rock (even the Post Rotation one) has some very stong choices. The Ravnican Rock certainly doesn't have card of the same power level. But then again, the rest of the field isn't that perfect either. Let's see what we can see.

The GolgaRock (B/G Control)
*Lands* 6x Forest 6x Swamp 4x Temple Garden 4x Overgrown Tomb 2x Svogthos, the Restless Tomb *Creatures* 4x Elves of the Deep Shadow 4x Birds of Paradise 4x Cavern Caryatid 4x Loxodon Hierarch 3x Grave-Shell Scarab 3x Gleancrawler 2x Sisters of Stone Death	*Instants* 4x Putrefy 3x Last Gasp *Artifacts* 4x Plague Boiler

Verdict: Block Constructed
The logic of this deck is pretty simple. You just blow up everything when you are able to do so and cast a biggie for the win. One could include Helldozer instead of Gleancrawler. Helldozer is more controllish and can get out of hand pretty quickly, but he wan't hurt your opponent that much if he is playing aggro. Of course a 6/5 body isn't bad. But I like Gleancrawler more, since he brings back creatures, and you've got quite the creature base. Of course, as I said, this deck is nowhere close to the power level of its Extended cousin since it has neither quick and effective discard (with your only option being Nightmare Void), nor some sort of continuous reanimation. The closest thing to that is Golgari Guildmage, who is expensive and fragile...

*Next, let's take a look at a Golgari aggro deck...

GolgaBeats
*Lands* 6x Forest 5x Swamp 1x Plains 4x Temple Garden 4x Overgrown Tomb 2x Svogthos, the Restless Tomb *Creatures* 4x Elves of the Deep Shadow 4x Birds of Paradise 4x Shambling Shell 3x Civic Wayfinder 4x Keening Banshee 4x Loxodon Hierarch 4x Grave-Shell Scarab 3x Gleancrawler	*Instants* 4x Putrefy 4x Last Gasp

Verdict: Block Constructed
The first thing you can see about this deck is that it's very much like GolgaRock. The thing that changes is its win methods. While GolgaRock aims at controling, this deck aims purely on creature rush. Well, since Black is involved it has some creature control, but not much. If I was a bit thoughtful of my choice of Gleancrawler in Helldozer's stead, I sure stand by my choice on this one. You have too many creatures to just throw away all that advantage by allowing creatures of yours to die!

*To finish with the Golgari I feel like I must elaborate on another path that one could follow. It's even highlighted in the player's guide that is contained in the Ravnican Fat Pack. That would have to be...

Savra's Sacrifices
*Lands* 5x Swamp 7x Forest 2x Plains 4x Temple Garden 4x Overgrown Tomb *Creatures* 4x Birds of Paradise 3x Elves of the Deep Shadow 3x Golgari Guildmage 4x Shambling Shell 4x Savra, Queen of the Golgari 3x Golgari Rotwurm 4x Grave-Shell Scarab 2x Gleancrawler	*Instants* 4x Congregation at Dawn 4x Putrefy *Sorceries* 3x Recollect

Verdict: Casual, Multiplayer
This deck is kind of casual, but funny enough to mention. Its main way of winning is by sacrificing Black/Green creatures with a Savra in play, thus gaining board control. It's a deck that utilizes Dredge to its fullest extent, since your best choice would have to be sacrificing Shambling Shell and Grave-Shell Scarab to their ability and then dredging them back. Since there were too few creatures with a built-in sacrificing ability, I included Golgari Rotwurm and the expensive Golgari Guildmage. Another more subtle reason why I included the guildmage, is that he is a B/G creature... Again, Gleancrawler is a major player here, since he brings your newly sacrificed creatures back into your hand. Since having a Savra in play is crucial for this deck, I decided to include Congregession at Dawn. Since she is a bit fragile, Recollect is in here as well.


Finally, there are a couple of decks that could be quite good that don't have any apparent guild connection...

*As you can see in many cards, some Ravnican cards tend to have some interaction with Auras. It's even mentioned in the aforementioned booklet in the Fat pack... There are quite a few good cards that have some kind of synergy with them. So, one could build the following deck:

Auras.deck
*Lands* 8x Forest 3x Mountain 3x Plains 4x Temple Garden 4x Sacred Foundry *Creatures* 4x Birds of Paradise 3x Bramble Elemental 4x Auratouched Mage *Sorceries* 4x Three Dreams 4x Farseek	*Enchantments* 4x Fists of the Ironwood 4x Galvanic Arc 1x Pollarbright Wings 1x Moldervine Cloak 1x Flickerfrom 1x Followed Footsteps *Artifacts* 4x Cloudstone Curio 3x Spectral Searchlight

Verdict: Casual, Borderline Block Constructed
Well, I don't think that it's that difficult to understand the way this deck hopes to win... The main plan is to cast Auratouched Mage and bring either Followed Footsteps, or Flickerform and then go for the win via lots of tokens or direct damage. Flickerform is better to tutor for if you have lots of mana, since you can actually kill your opponent with only one Galvanic Arc (and lots of rounds). However, my build supports another winning condition, Bramble Elemental. Though bramble has a nice body and a cute ability he will hardly ever win you a game all be himself. That's the reason I included Cloustone Curio. I think that if there's any deck that can support it, it's this one! It's especially sick when you have a Brambly, Curio and 2 auras with cip abilities. However, it's a very slow deck and heavily depends on what the other two expansions will bring in the Aura territory.

*Finally, there's an archetype that several players seem to try and build in every Standard and in every Block Constructed... Could Ravnica dinally be the set? Let's find out...

U/B/G Reanimator
*Lands* 6x Forest 4x Island 4x Swamp 4x Overgrown Tomb 4x Watery Grave *Creatures* 4x Stinkweed Imp 4x Birds of Paradise 4x Razia, Boros Archangel 3x Sisters of Stone Death 4x Dimir Doppelganger	*Instants* 4x Telling Time 3x Moonlight Bargain *Sorceries* 4x Vigor Mortis 4x Glimpse the Unthinkable 4x Compulsive Research

Verdict: Block Constructed
I believe that the reason that a reanimator deck wasn't viable in the past formats is that no good spells existed for having cards you wanted, where you wanted them. This changed in Ravnica. We get big dredge numbers, a way to put lots of cards in your graveyard, and two cards that help you draw cards you want and dump the others in your graveyard. With that we also get two nice reanimator spells, with Dimir Doppelganger being a bit better, though more expensive, than Vigor Mortis. I included Razia and Sisters of Stone Death as your reanimation targets, since they both have some kind of built-in creature killing abilities. Other reanimation targets could include
Mindless Mass, Grozoth, Autochton Wurm, Blazing Archon, and Szadek, Lord of Secrets. The only thing that's good about Grozoth is that it has a self-discarding ability, but I wouldn't think that that pushes him over the top. Szadek has some synergy with any extra copies of Glimpse the Unthinkable that you might have in your hand. All in all, it might prove good if more good spells get printed, or might prove to slow.

*Finally I feel like I should mention the combo between Pariah's Shield and Phytohydra or a random regenerator. Sure, it can win you the game, since all the damage that would be dealt to you will be either redirected to Phytohydra (or the regenerator), but really it's too fragile (since all the guilds have a way of shutting it off). It's a funny combo, maybe too casual, but I just thought I'd mention it.

The fact that some guilds (Boros Legion) get more decks than other (Selesnya Conclave) is due to the fact that Ravnica simply can't support other archetypes... At least, that's what I think. I would love a W/R Burn, or a W/R Control, but there simply aren't enough spells for them!
Of course I understand that major tournaments won't start at least 'till Guildpact. And I am sure that Guildpact will bring some tremendous changes in the Ravnica Block Consructed. The reason I wrote this article was to get some of the "work" done, since Guildpact will (maybe) strengthen the above decks a bit (or make some of them that were on the unplayable borders, well, stricktly unplayable), but for the most part, add six potential decks.