What is Popular is Not Always the Best

Hey guys it's time for the first lesson, what's popular is not always the best.



In my early days I brewed my own lists, while they weren't the best they could still hold their own. In a time of Delver decks I was playing mono-white angels (my first deck and certainly the worst) and a Nicol Bolas Grixis list. Yes, I did lose a lot of the time, but I always had fun playing my little decks while people did the same thing over and over again. While people sat there pondering and flipping delvers I was playing Avacyn, Angel of Hope from the graveyard with Defy Death making her a flying vigilant 10/10 making her and all of my creatures indestructible.

A face only a vampire could love

Things being popular don't just pertain to a deck type. Specific cards can also be very popular and format defining. My first highly competitive list was a stock BR agro list, but the list was non-zombies and instead of running Falkenrath Aristocrat I was running Rakdos, Lord of Riots. While sometimes I wish I would have had an Aristocrat I loved being able to have Rakdos on field, play a searing spear, using Rakdos’ ability to play a Zealous Conscripts for 3 colorless less and win the game. Its plays like these that make me love finding cheaper and more flavorful alternatives to cards that are expected to be played if you are in a particular color.

Ready to bring the pain

Currently the convention is to run multi-colored decks because the current block is so focused on the multi-colored guilds of Ravnica. Why play one color when it’s so easy now to play two or more colors thanks to shock land letting our tap lands enter untapped? The answer is quite simple; it’s actually very fun to go against the grain. A couple weeks ago I was browsing the front page of TCG player when I found a very interesting article by Melissa DeTora, that can be found here, where she talks about a mono-green that has done very well in her area. After a little digging I was able to finish this list for under $50 and it is very fun to play. I took the list to a smaller FNM in my area to test out and make sure I have the play down before I go to the larger FNM. Despite it being my first time using the list I finished 3^rd because of its such raw power, and I’m very excited to see how it does at the larger tournament now that I’ve had some play testing with it. Miss DeTora goes on in her article to suggest a gruul version of the list that also seems very potent, but to me there is just some charm to this little mono-green deck.

These aren't needed to win or have a good time

So whether you’re new to the game or looking for a slight change of pace from running the constantly winning archetypes, take some time to do a little searching or brewing to find something that is out of the popular deck lists in your area and be prepared to have a great time.

Have a good one guys,
Zack