Magic Menagerie - Lorwyn Block Decklists!

Lorwyn Block is going to need its aggro deck of choice. While that very well could be (and perhaps should be) a monocolor deck such as Red Deck Wins or Kithkin Weenie, let me instead present one of my favorite decks to play from my imaginary "gauntlet," a deck based around exploiting various tribal and class synergies with Changelings as well as multiple overlaps of class and tribe. The list looks like a chaotic mess until you see it in action (that's a theme among my decklists, to be honest), but the synergistic cards can really gel to quickly steamroll a surprised opponent.

WARRIORS (or REDLEG'S DECK)

11 Mountain
11 Forest

3 Game-Trail Changeling
4 Adder-Staff Boggart
3 War-Spike Changeling
4 Woodland Changeling
4 Battlewand Oak
4 Winnower Patrol
4 Mudbutton Clanger
4 Brighthearth Banneret
4 Ambassador Oak

4 Giant's Ire

Sideboard
3 Roar of the Crowd
4 Shard Volley
4 Lash Out
4 Hurly-Burly

The maindeck is straight-forward, pedal-to-the-metal aggro. I even eschewed removal spells for more creatures and Giant's Ire (a card that will be more than outclassed come Shadowmoor). From the sideboard comes removal, both pinpoint and mass, for problem matchups like Faeries or other quick decks with evasion. At the time I posted this list, I added a blurb explaining some of my choices and decisions:

This deck turned out differently from my initial ideas, but I still think it has potential. Basically, this is the Lorwyn Block version of White Weenie - you'll be playing creature after creature after creature, and your only spell does four to the dome while hopefully drawing you into another creature. I thought about including Blind-Spot Giant, but I just didn't have the room. You could possibly include it over Ambassador Oak, but 4 power for 3G is pretty nice too.

One of my playtesting partners, WoCoNation of Gatherling fame, had this to say after recently looking over the list a second time:

This deck is an exercise in extremes. Taking advantage of Changelings, it seeks to generate some powerful advantages from Kinship and other tribal tactics. However, it has no evasion and no removal. It could be powerful in tradtional warfare, but may struggle mightily against Faeries and Kithkin which can deploy fliers early and often.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, every format needs a control deck. The early Lorwyn Block events will be full of aggressive decks like the one above and, for that reason, a board control deck utilizing the block's playable Treefolk and heaps of removal will be initially successful. However, as the metagame develops, more "traditional" permission-style control decks will emerge as contenders. This block's version will utilize everyone's favorite tribe as well as the most popular/hated card in the format. Without further ado, the list:

COUNTERFAERIES (or KEHMESIS' DECK)

16 Island
8 Swamp

2 Pestermite
2 Sentinels of Glen Elendra
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Mulldrifter
2 Latchkey Faerie

2 Broken Ambitions
1 Footbottom Feast
3 Violet Pall
4 Ponder
4 Negate
4 Faerie Trickery
4 Nameless Inversion

Sideboard
4 Peppersmoke
1 Footbottom Feast
2 Pestermite
4 Whirlpool Whelm
4 Festercreep

The venerable WoCoNation had this to say about my control deck:

This is an uber control deck with 14 counters and 7 hard removal spells, not to mention Pestermite [which there should be 4 of]. The deck lacks early drops, but should manage to hold off the opponent until achieving 4-5 mana and locking them out.

I agree with him about the lack of early plays. This was a formidable deck in our limited testing, but I remember some games that got away from me early just because I didn't have that Ponder or Nameless Inversion I needed early. I attempted to address this problem with Whirlpool Whelm and Festercreep in the sideboard, but I was never able to test the sideboard enough to reach a conclusion on my choices. Despite these possible pitfalls, someone will try a permission deck and I'd wager that it will share more than a few similarities with the list I outlined above.

Sorry, I don't have a combo deck for you. Instead, the final deck from my initial "gauntlet" is what I believe will be the natural evolution of decks based around the abusable Evoke mechanic. With only two sets available, an Evoke deck lacks good support cards from two colors to be competitive in a developed metagame. Instead, it will be in three-color combinations that many place their stock. I stated this several months ago after experimenting with a straight build:

I think we are going to see a lot of three color control decks built to exploit the long game power of Evoke. I think the most likely color candidates for those decks are , , and , as these color combinations have good Elementals, mana acceleration, and toughness-independent removal. My preliminary build is somewhat unfocused, but I think it demonstrates the power inherent in these three color control combinations.

Here is the aforementioned build:

MOXIE (or STILLIRISE'S DECK)
"You got a lotta moxie, kid."

5 Island
7 Forest
8 Swamp
4 Shimmering Grotto

2 Warren Pilferers
4 Fertilid
3 Ambassador Oak
3 Mournwhelk
2 AEthersnipe
4 Mulldrifter

3 Nameless Inversion
3 Violet Pall
4 Fertile Ground
4 Ponder
4 Eyeblight's Ending

Sideboard
3 Negate
4 Festercreep
4 Cloudcrown Oak
4 Boggart Loggers

This deck is where all of the good cards from the Lorwyn Block went to live. It is simply packed full of solid creatures and removal that have little interaction with one another but are just incredible in their own right. If you can avoid mana issues, this deck is a beast that has inevitability over almost any deck an opponent can throw at you. That's a big "if," however, as both Fertilid and Shimmering Grotto slow down the deck considerably.

Below is the insight of WoCoNation, deck critic extraordinaire:

This is an Evoke-based deck with the standard metric crapton of black removal. Along with Fertilid for some mana thinning, this deck hopes to win by killing anything that moves until it can get one of it's big threats into play and start beating.

That's all for now. In the vaults of my hard drive rest even more brilliant lists. Let us hope that they see the light of day sometime in the not-to-distant future. Until then, enjoy Lorwyn Block Pauper. So far, I have had a blast playing it. There are definitely more options than in Kamigawa Block, and that is coming from someone who actually enjoyed that format. Thanks for reading!