Lorwyn starts this week

[eldaec]

In case you were not aware.

Release leagues start Thursday.

[Johny Cee]

I went to the release for this set.  Decent set.  Tribes are STRONG.  Changelings are strong.  Lots of bombs,  lots of solid cards.

Actually had 2 Vigor (6/6 trampler for 6;  if one of your creatures would take damage,  prevent that damage and put that many +1/+1 counters on),  and still lost my first match due to land screw.

[Johny Cee]

So far, I'm liking what Lorwyn brings to the Constructed table.

1. Good tribal pauper/low cost decks.  Elves and Kithkin both can be put together with mostly commons and uncommons.  Goblins only require a couple rares.  These decks are actually fairly competitive,  though a low-cost version won't ever be a tier 1 deck.

2.  Insane commons and uncommons.  Oblivion Ring is the most powerful common,  and one of the most powerful Standard Constructed cards, ever.  Shriekmaw is a house.  Things like Crib Swap, Ponder, etc are all playable.  See above for tribal commons and uncommons.

3.  Planeswalkers are good.  Almost all will see Constucted play, but aren't required to drop into a deck.  The power balance is right,  and the stronger PW are dropped into colors that need the boost.  The green one, for instance,  is everything a green deck needs to push it from scrub to decent territory.

4. Counter and draw seem to be at a decent level of power (for once).  An old MtG joke is the most overpowered card ever printed is Island.  This set gives blue the hard counters and tricksie spells it wants,  without turning the Constructed meta into another age of Draw-Go.  Blue actually has to use some creatures,  and use their tricks, rather than relying on a handful of overpowered cards that make it into every deck.

5.  Some Constructed holes were nicely filled.  Thoughtseize is going to be a cash grab, true, but it finally fills black's void at the 1 CC slot.  Geddock Teeg is a powerful Control inhibator that doesn't break the meta.  White finally got back some of it's Remove from Game/targetted removal,  that is actually useful.  Red got some nice mid and late game power to replace the nerfing of Land D.

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I'm liking the way Wizards has toned down the three most annoying archetypes to play against:  Blue Permission, Red Land D, and what I refer to as Solitare Combo (they don't even need to see your board,  they just play to get their combo off).

Blue Permission - I play Blue alot,  but I hate metas that get completely dominated by the permission aspect of the color.  Powerful Blue Permission strategies tend to drop down game interactivity to such a degree that it's no longer fun to play,  or turn the game into "hope I drew my blue hoser".

Land D - Land D that just consists of gobbling up all your resources again reduces game interactivity.  Facing off against a Land D deck that has a good draw turns into "what card do I want to discard this turn?"

Solitaire Combo - Ugh.  These decks only get played when they consistently win or lock the board turn 3/4.  Slower combo options are fine,  because they allow the opponent to do something about them no matter what color they are in.  My entire game shouldn't come down to mulliganing until I start with whatever the present Blue counter hoser is.

[eldaec]

So far, the Lorwyn bits I really like.

But the planeswalkers I hate with the passion of a thousand burning suns. Not fun to play against. Ever.

Clash is much more fun than I expected, basically because of the 'everyone scry 1' effect at the end. Random opportunities to scry make everyone's decks more fun.

I was worried that sealed deck wouldn't really give opportunities to bring out the tribal flavour, but it does work, not least because the tribes have shared cards (not just the changelings) which mean tribes in similar colours tend to play nice together.

Anyway, 4-1 (ofc) in my first league playing mostly giants with a couple of Kithkin.

Based on what I played against tonight...

Giants, Elves, Elementals seem strong
Fairies, Goblins, Treefolk are mediocre
Kithkin seemed weak.

I have yet to see anyone play merfolk. Looking at the cards merfolk seem better designed for draft and constructed anyhow.

[Johny Cee]

Tribes:

- Kithkin can be pretty strong.  Maybe more so in draft than sealed.  The 1/1 tapper for 1 is amazing.  Wizened Cenn (all you other kithkin get +1/+1), and the 2/2 first strking lifelink guy, the 5 cc flying/firststriking 3/3...  Militia's Pride is amazing (the create kithkin token generator).  The green kithkin that taps to give an attacker +2/+2 is pretty sweet.

Lots of support with things like the Cloudgoat Giant, Oblivion Ring, Neck Snap, etc.

The Kithkin cantriping pump spell is pretty stong, as well.

- Merfolk can be a pretty good deck.  More tricksie,  and based around having alot of merfolk out.  Got my ass handed to me by a deck that had could tap, mill, gain life, reduce my creatures power, etc.