Knights vs Dragons: A Sinkhole for Money

[Lelouch32]

Knights vs Dragons: A Sinkhole for Money

By: Corlando

On April 1st I woke to the sight of snow raining down on my front lawn. Being from the South and not being too familiar with the phenomena of snow, except for the brief time it visits us in December, I figured that it was a sign of the apocalypse and grabbed my security blanket, a flashlight, and all of my Magic cards. I managed to make it down to the cellar before I realized that the snow coming down was not a sign of the apocalypse, but of Wizards of the Coast producing a terrible product.

For those who have not heard, the Knights verse Dragons Duel Decks came out on April 1st. The decks are supposedly designed to seize on the flavor of the age-old struggle between the destructive, burning Dragons and humble, holy Knights. Now I’ll freely admit that the decks do a decent job of taking this feeling and playing with it. However, the epic battle of Knights verse Dragons feels more of a punch up between a dragon with braces and Don Quixote. Allow me to explain.

The main problem with both of these decks is that both of them have serious synergy problems. This means that each deck has techniques and strategies that actually battle each other more than actually battling the opponent. Let’s look at the Dragon deck for an example:

Dragon Deck:

Creatures
1x Cinder Wall
1x Skirk Prospector
1x Bloodmark Mentor
1x Fire-Belly Changeling
2x Mudbutton Torchrunner
1x Dragonspeaker Shaman
2x Dragon Whelp
1x Henge Guardian
1x Voracious Dragon
1x Bogardan Rager
1x Mordant Dragon
1x Kilnmouth Dragon
1x Shivan Hellkite
1x Thunder Dragon
1x Bogardan Hellkite

Other Spells
2x Armillary Sphere
1x Dragon's Claw
1x Breath of Darigaaz
2x Dragon Fodder
1x Punishing Fire
1x Spitting Earth
1x Captive Flame
1x Ghostfire
1x Seething Song
1x Seismic Strike
1x Claws of Valakut
1x Temporary Insanity
1x Shiv's Embrace
1x Cone of Flame
2x Fiery Fall
1x Jaws of Stone

Lands:
24x Mountains

Does anyone see it? I do. First off, the inclusion of Dragonspeaker Shaman is great, allowing players to get their dragons out sooner thanks to the reduction in cost, because it combos well with Skirk Prospector, which gives you a :manar: for every goblin you sacrifice. This combination will allow players to get their aerial menaces out in no time at all. However, then the creators included only two Dragon Fodders, so you end up with a max of 9 possible goblins along with Voracious Dragon, which deals damage equal to twice the amount of goblins it devoured when it entered play. You see the problem here? Someone might go all in on a dragon, sacrificing a few goblins to get the mana necessary to summon it only to pull Voracious Dragon next turn. This really is not as bad as some of the other bad synergy I’ve seen, but it is pretty bad, especially if it is coming from Wizards of the Coast.

Another problem I have with this deck is the odd card inclusion. Now I know Wizards probably has their reason for a few things, but look at this. You have quite a few spells which are just copies of the same spell. The only difference is the casting cost: Splitting Earth, Seismic Strike, and Jaws of Stone all deal damage equal to the number of mountains you control to target creature. Jaws of Stone does allow you to split up the damage to hurt players as well, but that’s a lot of mana for possibly six maybe slightly higher damage. Why not just include three copies of the same card?

Then there are the cards that just seem out of place: Temporary Insanity, Armilliary Sphere, Cinder Wall, Henge Guardian. What Wizards could not find any better cards? Why does a dragon deck, built on punishing with fire and flying damage, concern itself with taking over the mind of a pathetic human for a cheap trick? Instead of this card could the deck have had a single Lightning Bolt? I think so. What about Cinder Wall the wall that kills itself at the end of the turn if it blocks, truly a useful card. If you want the Dragon deck to have a wall why not Battle Rampart, a pretty decent wall with the ability to support the bigger creatures by giving them haste. Henge guardian? Seriously why is this card in the deck? Why is an artifact creature, which kind of looks like a dragon, in this deck? Could they just not find another dragon to use even though magic has somewhere around forty-two other dragons they could have used? The deck really seems to just reek of laziness and of wanting to show off older cards that have not seen the light of day since 8th edition. However, this deck is passable when compared to the Knight deck. God help me.

Okay so here is the Knight deck:

Knight Deck:

Creatures
1x Caravan Escort
2x Lionheart Maverick
2x Knight of Cliffhaven
1x Knight of Meadowgrain
1x Knight of the White Orchid
1x Leonin Skyhunter
1x Silver Knight
1x White Knight
1x Knotvine Paladin
1x Steward of Valeron
1x Benalish Lancer
1x Zhalfirin Commander
1x Knight Exemplar
1x Knight of the Reliquary
1x Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers
1x Kabira Vindicator
1x Kinsbaile Cavalier
1x Alaborn Cavalier
1x Skyhunter Patrol
1x Plover Knights
1x Juniper Order Ranger
1x Paladin of Prahv

Other Spells
1x Harm's Way
1x Reciprocate
1x Edge of Autumn
1x Mighty Leap
1x Reprisal
1x Test of Faith
1x Heroes' Reunion
1x Sigil Blessing
1x Loxodon Warhammer
1x Spidersilk Armor
1x Griffin Guide
1x Oblivion Ring

Lands
2x Grasslands
1x Sejiri Steppe
2x Selesnya Sanctuary
1x Treetop Village
12x Plains
6x Forest

Can you see the stupidity? First up, why is this knight deck not mono-white? Why is this deck practically splashing for all of eight Green spells? Well, some would argue, “So that you can pay for the main creature’s casting cost, duh.” True, Knight of the Reliquary is the main creature of this deck, but why? She belongs in Landfall decks or decks that tend to go through a lot of lands. How many cards in this deck actually deal with lands… except for the fetch lands only one, Edge of Autumn. Then you throw in Knotvine Paladin who gets +1/+1 for each untapped creature you control when you attack. This is amazing because it goes against the very strategy of the deck. In the box for Knights verse Dragons, players receive a poster of sorts that explains how each deck works. For the Dragon deck, the poster explains that the deck is best suited for swinging with flying damage and burning those below. For the Knights, their best strategy is to attack in groups, working together to defeat the dragons. Knotvine Paladin only becomes a threat if you have several creatures on the field and HE ATTACKS ALONE! And on top of all of this we have the addition of Levelers giving an already divided deck something else to further factor into its strategy. Did Wizards give any idea, any idea at all into what cards they put in? Well at least they were smart enough to not put Hunted Dragon in the Dragon deck for simple reasons.

This deck also suffers in the card choice department. Why do we have Griffin Guide in the deck? Sure it’s there to help deal with the flying Dragons of death, but why this card? Why not Nimbus Wings a card that accomplishes the same goal, but does not randomly introduce a Griffin when a Knight dies? Why is Treetop Village in this deck? What does an Ape have to do with Knights fighting Dragons? Why Edge of Autumn which can become useless if you control more than four lands? Harrow would have been better if you wanted mana ramping and land destruction. However, if you wanted just land destruction why not Global Ruin to destroy all but one type of basic land on each side of the board. Constant Mists would also work because players could sacrifice lands to continually have a targetable fog effect. There are just so many cards that could have been included in the deck that I just really want to know why they were excluded.

I guess the thing that ticks me off the most about this deck is that they do not even use Green to the best of its abilities. Where’s the mana ramping? Where’s the power and toughness boosting? Where’s Wilt-Leaf Liege which would boost White and Green creatures by +1/+1 making it reasonable to make the deck two colored? Why Loxodon Warhammer and not Behemoth Sledge? Why not Captured Sunlight for a little Cascade action and some sustainability? Why no Congregation at Dawn to search out the knights and put them on top of your library? It just completely boggles my mind that such little thought seems to have been put into the deck, especially when it was built by those who created of the game.

So what does this mean for us Magic players? It means that Wizards saw that players liked the concept of duel deck and threw one together so they could make a quick buck. It is a failure of a product and a betrayal to the Magic community. Wizards of the Coast is supposed to give us products that are actually good, have some thought put into them, and generally give those who buy their products something new and interesting to work with. The Knights Verse Dragons Duel Decks is a hollow attempt to live up to the expectations of Magic players. That is why I ask you people who are considering buying this product, don’t. Do not buy it. We need to show Wizards that we are not just walking wallets. We want good products, well thought out decks, and something that makes us want to continue this hobby. I know that might seem harsh of me and I know that it must be hard putting together these type of decks, yet I still think they could have done some much more.

With that said, here is your favorite section, the Closing Question Section:

1. Did you buy the Knights verse Dragons Duel Decks? What was your personal opinion of the product?

2. What Knight or Dragon cards are you sad did not make it into the duel decks?

3. Are you excited about the Ajani verse Nicol Bolas Duel Decks?

Well everyone that’s all I have for you today… oh wait no it is not. Look in the Competition Thread and you’ll find a new challenge. The challenge is to improve these Duel Decks. The competition will run for about a week and the winner will get a nice little shout out at the end of my next article. Until then readers, always remember, “Etherium is Limited. Innovation is not.” This is Corlando signing out.

[surewhynot]

1) I did not buy them. My local shop's owner actually only ordered like...10 of them so he can say he has them, but knowing full well how bad they are. You are correct, the interactions within the cards are what my friends and I call "counter-synergy" -- Synergy that actually hampers the deck despite trying to improve it. I'm as surprised as you are, as counter-synergy is often something that happens to inexperienced deck builders. They want their deck to do something, and try so hard to make that one thing work that they end up ruining their deck. It is easily the worst one they've made so far. =/

2) Dragonmaster Outcast. He makes insane amounts of dragons if not dealt with. If dealt with, he take a hit for the rest of your creatures. He's an excellent removal magnet, and his artwork is absurd. For knights, I dunno, I didn't even look at the knights half of it because I was so disappointed by the dragon half. I will say that Knights don't have to be mono-white to be effective. "Checker Knights" (:manab::manaw:) is a common alternative that is relatively impressive. Still, the multi-colored path that that one takes (from the sound of it) is pretty terrible as well.

3) Very excited. I hate cats, but Ajani is so damn cool he makes me forget my dire dislike of the feline race. And Nicol Bolas? He is THE antagonist in MTG...every conflict in the storyline...guess what? It can be traced back to that masterful dragon pulling the strings.

[Seras]

Why do we have Griffin Guide in the deck? Sure it’s there to help deal with the flying Dragons of death, but why this card? Why not Nimbus Wings a card that accomplishes the same goal, but does not randomly introduce a Griffin when a Knight dies?

I'm sorry, is getting a free flying blocker something bad?

Compared to Nimbus Wings, I think a 2/2 flyer for an extra colourless mana is pretty damn awesome.

Griffin Guide is one of the cards I discovered thanks to this deck and I quite like it, I've even ordered extras for my soldier deck.


As for the knight deck itself...I just ended up buying 3 sets and used that to make a pretty decent mono-white knight deck. I considered keeping the green splash to use the reliquary along with some harrows and vines of vastwood(always a great reason to splash green)..

..but in the end I found I had enough of a solid core to just play white. In fact the only cards not from the set that I added was Aura of Silence and Flickering Ward.

[Seras]

Do not buy it. We need to show Wizards that we are not just walking wallets.

I'd also like to point out that there's 4 cards in the Knight deck whose current total value exceed the cost of the set, making it more than worth it regardless of what you think of these decks as stand alone "ready-to-play" deck.

and for the record, NONE of the pre-made deck have ever been worth playing straight out of the box, they're there to provide initial inspiration and building blocks, that's why they're mostly made up of singles

[Voron]

I'd also like to point out that there's 4 cards in the Knight deck whose current total value exceed the cost of the set, making it more than worth it regardless of what you think of these decks as stand alone "ready-to-play" deck.




Don't forget that the 4 expensive cards in the the deck are worth less then their original version from other sets just because these are easier to get ;)

Take Knight of the Reliquary for example, in euro's she's worth 12 euro (the non-foil version from conflux) But the foil KvsD version is only 7. Almost half that much. And I'm sure it is the same in dollars, yen or every other currency.

I used to play a very powerful G/W knight deck. But just for the sake of flavor it would have been better if Wizards made their knight deck mono-white and made Knight Exemplar the deck leader. Making it G/W just so you can add another popular knight card isn't right :/

And I rather like the dragon deck, it is a good start to build a deck around. But still, the knight deck really sucks...

(my G/W knights btw:)
:manag:http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=135160:manaw:

[KuroRyuuD]

Hmph, i don`t really like Duel decks that much, they cost a fortune and don`t have anything too good in them.
1. Did you buy the Knights verse Dragons Duel Decks? What was your personal opinion of the product?

I did not, as you figured, it was tempting however, but proved to be rubbish as soon as i saw the card list.
2. What Knight or Dragon cards are you sad did not make it into the duel decks?
Actually, i`m quite happy the cards i had in mind did not make it in here.
However, i did hope there`d be a Ryuusei, the Falling Star or two, 3 Dragonmaster Shamans, 3 Seething songs at least and, sure why not, Dragonstorm.
3. Are you excited about the Ajani verse Nicol Bolas Duel Decks?
I`m not looking forward to it. After this shenanigans i`m not looking forward to anything unless i know what to expect from these Duel Decks.

[Seras]

Don't forget that the 4 expensive cards in the the deck are worth less then their original version from other sets just because these are easier to get ;)


well, I wasn't getting them for their resell value....I actually just wanted the cards and this was a cheaper way of getting them compared to ordering them as singles =)

[SavajCabbaj]

1) Bought it, loved it, but didn't. There's one other thing you should know about duel decks -- alternate art! I love a lot of the new art WotC commissions for the Duel series (although, question.. Isn't a Loxodon Warhammer without the Loxodon just a warhammer? :P).

Most importantly, however, there are a lot of cards that I miss out on whenever I take my inevitable 1-2 year hiatus from magic and miss a block or two. I'm very happy about a few of the cards, like Knight of the Reliquery and Punishing Fire, which are great for EDH but I never opened a pack from their sets.

2) Well. Lets put it this way. In other Duel Decks WotC could give us Demonic Tutor? 2x Swords to Plowshares? But they could only give us one Seething Song and a bunch of absolute crap for burn spells? I mean Ghostfire? Really? Not even a pair of Rite of Flames to make it worth buying a second box?

WotC doesn't make a buck off these decks because people buy them to play them out of the box (though some people do, and thats cool) but because WotC doesn't make profit from secondary markets, and the Duel Decks often include some awesome uncommons and rares that are out of circulation. By reintroducing a print run of some cards that have an excessive mark up, WotC gets a cut of that secondary market sales by circumventing the player's need to buy into that market.

This box set absolutely lacks any of that. Not one of the cards in the box set screams "Omigawsh! Come own me!! I'm that awesome, but that hard to get!" There are some mediocre-to-good cards, but by comparison to some of the other box sets? Nada.

I did get a Knight of the Reliquery and Knight of the White Orchid out of the deal, and a Bogardan Hellkite and 2x Dragon Whelps, and a few other cool singles, of which I own none. Well, except the Whelps. But still, they're pretty awesome!

3) Absolutely. I can't wait to see the new artwork they commission for the planeswalkers. The best part (imo) about the walker decks is that they have the opportunity to commission new art for other thematically appropriate cards to now incorporate the PWs themselves into the artwork. Love that! I also don't own either Ajani Vengeant or Nicol Bolas, and Ajani would be pretty sweet in my W/R EDH deck.

[Howlinger]

A few friends of mine went out and got this set... can't say I was really inpressed with it really, but thats just me I guess. *Shrugs*

[Findfishy]

To think of it Way back when I started I learned to play with a portal duel set and a buddy of mine back when iceage was out (I was in 7th grade).

IMO it sounds like WotC is trying to draw people from other TCGs. I'm not sure who owns them anymore, but WotC (I believe) lost Pokemon to nintendo, I'm not sure who owns the WoW TCG or even how it works, but the title of this duel pack sounds like its attempting to draw people in, not nessecarially get us old pros to buy it.

I remember buying several rebel decks back when marquadian masks was out specifically for the lin sivy and chao mano (to combo them into play and put the card that redirects all damage to the chao [unfortunatley i cant remember the third card's name])

[stickngojuggalo]

yes i bought the decks:manab::manab::manab:

i was not impressed at all with the structure of the deck although i cant say i'm displeased with many of the singles:manab::manab::manab:

[raggedjoe]

I'd also like to point out that there's 4 cards in the Knight deck whose current total value exceed the cost of the set, making it more than worth it regardless of what you think of these decks as stand alone "ready-to-play" deck.

and for the record, NONE of the pre-made deck have ever been worth playing straight out of the box, they're there to provide initial inspiration and building blocks, that's why they're mostly made up of singles

This is just false. The Elspeth deck was actually a decent deck, and if you bought 2 boxes both Elspeth and Tezz became good in the casual scene. These decks on the other hand... Not so much

[Seras]

I guess our interpretation of "decent" varies quite a bit; a deck made up of 27 singles,most of which are fairly crappy commons, does not qualify as decent to me.

/shrugs

[aaronwardL69]

I bought the decks for fun, as long as you pick them up not expecting to get amazing returns. Its fun to play with decks that are pre-built just for some fun games where no one really has the advantage and everything is flavorful.

[JundMage]

Arghh, Wizards almost got me again... I just about splurged for this the other day, but I'm glad I read the card list. The singles may be worth it, but the decks on their own don't hold any value to me.

[Lord_Of_The_Planeswalkers]

1. Did you buy the Knights verse Dragons Duel Decks? What was your personal opinion of the product?

I did. Being a fairly decent Magic player (only about a year on and off) i was just happy to get new cards. I just saw it in the store one day and decided to grab it cause it looked cool. My knowledge of the card database in general is extremely limited so when i looked through it i saw cards with pretty cool effects not cards that could be replaced with something better. However, after reading your post I agree with most of what you said. I wasnt entirely happy with the knights deck so i put in whispersilk cloak for Knight Exemplar and a Banshee Blade for sheer awesomeness.

2. What Knight or Dragon cards are you sad did not make it into the duel decks?
had too look up knight cards but...
Lightweilder Paladin would have been awesome and i have no idea why Mirran Crusader isnt in this... Paladin en-Vec.... Outrider en-Kor... Pentarch Paladin... Riftmarked Knight...Sigiled Paladin....Student of Warfare....Wilt-Leaf Leige.....

as for the dragon side i would have loved to see Flameblast Dragon but it only recently came out... Also Hellkite Charger... thats about it though

3. Are you excited about the Ajani verse Nicol Bolas Duel Decks?
HEEEEEELLLLSS YES!!!! not only is ajani a badass in every aspect but i really really really want nicol bolas(planeswalker).