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I am sort of new, so I might be way off, but I think the best way to go at this sneak is to go white and then either red and splash black, or black then splash red. This will give you the best creature and removal options.

Of course, it all depends on what is pulled....

Yeah, I was talking about which colors to play to effectively use the Dimir promo card.  I'm already thinking of picking Boros for my first event and I hope to be able to splash black for removal but we'll just see what's in the packs.

Maybe with the Dimir promo, play W/B and splash U.  Or W/U and splash B.  Oh, heck, who knows?!?

After seeing the promos, looking at the whole set, and doing a few sealed sims, Orzhov is looking pretty good. Plenty of removal at common (though, admittedly, two of those clash - the 'sac a creature' instant and the 'pacifism' aura), and one of their better removal spells - the one mana black aura - would combo very well with Treasury Thrull, the promo.

Of course, there are drawbacks I also noticed when playtesting one of those sealed tests. First, you have to actually get creatures in the bin - which would be easy enough as Dimir, but as Orzhov it encourages early trades, just to start using your cheapest removal. Secondly, you'd need to do something to make the Treasury Thrull's attack 'safe'; trading your 4/4 repeatable recursion for one removal spell doesn't seem worth it.



Beyond that, every guild seems pretty playable. Boros is also in 2 removal colors, their promo is removal + card advantage (as well as being a bomb), and RW decks are usually aggressive and pretty easy to form. Gruul with bloodrush pretty much gives you access to a plethora of combat tricks - you've got a deck which has way more Giant Growth / Titanic Growth than you'd usually get without sacrificing creature slots. Dimir has fliers and removal, awesome card advantage in Cipher (Hands of Binding has so much potential at common), and their promo, if it doesn't beat them to death, can mill them out (not to mention it turns on that 1 mana removal aura which is a big plus).

Simic, actually, I think looks like the hardest guild to pull. Evolve has a lot of potential, but it feels like you'll need to pull a really good pool to do well with it. The issue, of course, being that neither color has the strong post-spell removal offered in WRB, so you're pretty much going to be relying on trades - which will be tough if your opponent drops a bomb. I love Simic, so may still play them yet, but the difficulty compared to the other guilds isn't helping my decision.

To put into perspective how a non-bonkers Orzhov deck would look, I'll post the list I've been using a bit since one of my sims.

// Lands - 17
1 x Watery Grave
1 x Orzhov Guildgate
1 x Island
8 x Swamp
6 x Plains

// Nonlands - 23
1 x Soul Ransom
1 x Treasury Thrull
1 x Vizkopa Confessor
1 x Wight of Precinct Six
1 x Thrull Parasite
1 x Syndicate Enforcer
1 x Basilica Screecher
1 x Vizkopa Guildmage
1 x Orzhov Charm
1 x Grisly Spectacle
1 x Angelic Edict
1 x Corpse Blockade
2 x Assault Griffin
2 x Slate Street Ruffian
2 x One Thousand Lashes
2 x Devour Flesh
3 x Death's Approach

Might not win a prerelease against a deck with some legitimate bombs, but even without any really bomby rares it has enough removal that it should be able to beat face without issue. And if you're able to land Treasury Thrull and get in an attack without it dying... yeah, you should have more than enough removal for the rest of the game.

Also, Grisly Spectacle is just awesome removal, especially at common. Kills most creatures that might matter, and then mills - meaning it helps enable Death's Approach

Jan 22, 2013 -- 6:20PM, Catotheyounger wrote:

If you think you repeatedly attack with treasury thrull, you haven't played enough sealed sims.  Your game plan goes something like this:

1:  Play thrull
2:  Suicide him in if you have a bigger bomb in the yard.
3:  If you don't, just sit back with your 4/4 blocker and drain them to death. 

Just posted my decklist above - unfortunately, Orzhov pool had heaaaps of removal, but no bomby bombs.