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Lorwyn: the TribalingBy Sean DeCoursey on October 4th, 2007 · Filed in Block Constructed, General Magic, Standard (Type 2) · 36 CommentsLorwyn: the Tribaling Well, the Prerelease is over, and Lorwyn is officially here. Lorwyn brings us a lot of new cards, and the return of tribal themes to Magic for the first time since Onslaught Block was around. There are however, quite a few significant changes between the two blocks. For one thing, unlike Onslaught, this set is almost completely devoid of mass removal. For another, rather than have a secondary theme in the set, Wizards just decided to up the number of tribes. So, the burning questions on everyone's mind are: what tribes are good? What tribes are bad? Well, I'm here to answer that for you. Or at least pretend like I know. Faeries To start off with, we'll use the Faeries. Mostly because people seem to be dissing them on a much-larger-than-is-practical basis.
In a creature based block, I rock beyond belief. Goblins (Boggarts) Hi, we're the Goblins. Wizards didn't like how we dominated Block Constructed in the last tribal set, so they made us weaker so we couldn't do it again. Then they went ahead and made us graveyard/recursion based in a set with absolutely no graveyard hate. We're gonna dominate block again. Wooohooooo!
I'm good. No, seriously, I'm really, really good. No, better than that. Goblins has by far the most playable cards not included in the decklist; these include things as varied as Emberwilde Augur and Sardapian Empires, Vol. VII (it produces goblin tokens). Goblins also has the best dual lands in Standard and the most crossover between its two colors of any of the Lorwyn tribes. So yeah, goblins are the best . . . again. Elementals Five colors, and based in Red . . . right. Red, as you may know, isn't the most color-fixing-y color around. In fact, I can't think of a single Red color-fixing card in existence outside of Agent of Stromgald. But, creative genius that I am, I hit on a solution. And no, it WASN'T Smokebraider.
I didn't make the deck? Damn authors' bias against fragile conditional mana. I decided to use only Lorwyn Elementals because there are just so many Elementals in Standard right now, ranging from the obvious (Sulfur Elemental) to the not so obvious (Molimo, Maro-Sorcerer), that this could have very quickly become a non-Lorwyn themed deck. There are a lot of domain-enabling cards in Standard right now in addition to the Vivid land cycle (like Legacy Weapon) that mean Elementals just might be worth checking out. Also, Horde does let you play instants and sorceries from the graveyard as long as they are also Elementals. Treefolk The Treefolk: they're folk, and they're trees. Pretty cool in general, I think. However, they fall victim to two cardinal sins in competitive Magic. They cost a lot, and they're in three colors. Despite all that, however, they randomly have a lot more potential than you'd think, though most of it rests on the back of a few specific cards. Fortunately for the woodies, they have tutors to find those cards.
The deck ends up being pretty much just straight green and splashing for Doran because there are literally no Treefolk worth playing in either Black or White. When Wizards said they were just splashing into those colors, they meant it. However, Crib Swap and Oblivion Ring probably ARE worth using, and were left off of this list solely because I wanted to showcase Heartwood Storyteller. Deadwood Treefolk is a staggeringly good card advantage engine for this deck, and is definitely worthy of consideration. I'd like to take a second and point out that this tribe is significantly better than it looks at first glance. Vs. Aggro, they have to get through a bunch of 0/5 walls and 0/3 harbingers before they can start dealing damage, by which point you should have out significantly bigger creatures than they. Vs. control, they have to contend with Storyteller and Eyes, both of which can potentially generate card advantage on the order of Compost. Finally, Timber Protector does just that, and really, really wants someone to pair him with an Armageddon-type effect. Kithkin The little guys first introduced as a one-of in Legends are back, in force. Mostly a White Weenie tribe, they pick up a very minor green splash and pair it with a fairly revolutionary concept: protection from mana costs. WW is good when it has efficient beaters, solid support cards, and great removal. Kithkin have all three.
I'm one of the most important cards in this set outside of Block, and one of the least relevant in it. Go figure. It's really surprising to me on some levels that the Kithkin don't have their own dual land, on another level, given how incredibly not represented in Green they are though, its not really that hard to swallow. Gaddock is much more useful in Standard and Extended than Block, due to the current eight Wrath effects existing in the first two. Also, Block just doesn't have that many X spells or non-creature spells with CMC > 3. The Kithkin have some great weenies, and if this tribe is expanded upon in future sets, I could see them having a real impact in multiple formats. The main thing hurting the little fellas now is a simple lack of numbers, as there are very few Kithkin in Magic that predate Lorwyn. Giants Like Treefolk, we suffer from the "too big and pricey" problem. Unlike Treefolk, we don't compensate with grossly overpowered legends or a good early game.
I'm so good, the rest of my tribe had to suck to make up for it. Or something like that. Merfolk (Merrow) Fishy! Fishy! No, that's not Flipper—it’s the sound of Magic players thrilled that Wizards finally decided to bring back the Merfolk after killing them because "it doesn't make sense from a flavor standpoint for creatures that live in the water to be fighting on land." Yeah, like a 0/1 Bird carrying a Sword is any better. And that's not even mentioning the whole FANTASY SETTING THING. Not one of Wizards' better decisions, but its good to see it starting to be fixed.
I'm not Tradewind, but lets see what kind of impression I can do. Elves Finally, we got to those pointy eared freaks, the Elves. They briefly showed up competitively during Onslaught block and ODY/ONS standard as a Madness foil, but for most of their existence they've been strictly a casual/tribal tribe. Lorwyn changes that.
Anyone else think I should be hotter, given the flavor text? Changelings And people thought I was silly rules trivia. The Changelings will determine if some of the more "Timmy" oriented tribes, such as Giants, end up working or not; they will greatly smooth out limited games, and they just may end up enabling the multi-tribe "zoo" deck. (     featuring Flamekin Bladewhirl, Goldmeadow Stalwart, Oona's Prowler and Wren's Run Vanquisher looks rather promising)Overview, Ranking, and Summary In terms of competitive play in Standard, the tribes rank out something like this: 1. Goblins 2. Elves 3. Kithkin 4. Elementals 5. Treefolk 6. Merfolk 7. Faeries 8. Giants If you wanted to try and take these guys into Extended for some reason, remember that Goblins, Elves, and Merfolk all have Ringleader-type cards in Apocalypse, but only Goblins and Elves are present in ONS, LOR, and INV. In Block Constructed, the environment is going to be excessively more like Limited than in any previous set. First off, unlike ONS block, which included copious amounts of removal (of both the spot and mass variety), LOR deals with the conflict of mass removal in a creature block in two ways: one, there isn't any. Hurly Burly, Incendiary Command, and Ashling the Pilgrim are it for Red. Black got Final Revels, Green has Cloudthresher, and White has Austere Command. That's it. None of it's what you would necessarily call "good" or "playable." The second thing Wizards did in Lorwyn to nerf mass removal was to print a lot of cards that hose it. The entire "Champion" mechanic, Deathrender, Gaddock Teeg, and the various anti-removal Tribal effects (Timber Protector, Boggarts’ recursion theme, Faeries' instant-speediness, etc.) will really force players to do lots of blocking and attacking and make combat tricks somewhat valuable. In Constructed Magic, this leads to a whole new style of play. This leads me to believe that, in Block Constructed, the Merrow may be slightly overdone with the kind of silliness that can be pulled off by Surgespanner if he's given any time on the board at all. Or maybe the Kithkin will be able to keep him in check with their low cost and speed. But I have a sneaking suspicion of not so much. The Merrow may in fact be the reason there is great spot removal in every color, because any deck that lacks a way to deal with the more devastating fish will quickly find itself locked out of the game. Of course, as long as Goblins have Tar Pitcher, they will be the deck to beat in Lorwyn Block. Note to Wizards, costing Sparksmith at four and removing the "pay life" part of his ability is still a bad idea in a Tribal block that's supposed to be all about creatures. By Sean DeCoursey on October 4th, 2007 · Filed in Block Constructed, General Magic, Standard (Type 2) · 36 Comments |
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