Magic: The Gathering Thread XIV: Instant Annoying, Just Add Hexproof

[tgva8889]

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I don't really have a list, but I would start with 4 Thragtusk, 4 Avacyn's Pilgrim and go from there. You might want some Thragtusks anyways, they're going to be all-stars for the next year.

[Fable Wright]

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WG by itself is insane. Adding Blue gives you Geist of St. Traft or Cackling Counterpart as options. Adding Black gives you mostly Demonic Rising and Skirsdag High Priest.

The thing about Populate is that unlike most token mechanics, it's not very good with a multitude of small tokens and is actually much better with larger, beefier tokens. Populating a 1/1 Lifelink Vampire is okay, but populating a 4/4 Angel or a Thragtusk is absurdly better. Populate is fine with Lingering Souls, but I would rather be populating a 3/3 all the time. Thus why Blue is so appealing; Cackling Counterpart allows you do insane things like Populate Thragtusk. Geist enabling ridiculous Populates (and being really good with Rootbound Defenses) is a big help also.

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Problem- hitting the UU required for Cackling Counterpart is a significant investment in the color, while something like Black can be easily splashed. Also, Demonic Rising is pretty terrible... having exactly one creature on the field at end step? In a deck running Populate?

I like Black as a splash more than investing a lot in Blue maindeck- less fixing is needed, and it's more of a splash than anything. I like black for the utility more- Lingering Souls flashback, splashing 2 High Priests, and potentially some removal. The deck you're describing is more of a U/W/g deck, which is powerful, but a different deck than I want to use. It can use populate and use Selesnya cards, but it really doesn't have that many ways to populate- the best are probably Wandering Temple and Rootborn Defenses, but that's building a deck around abusing the occasional populate on those two cards. I can see Delver fitting Rootborn Defenses in with Geist or something, but a heavier investment in W/G is needed to really get the most use out of the cards.

Running more G/W/b, I could see Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage being a viable token producer (because Populating Centaurs is good), Sundering Growth, and maybe even Growing Ranks as additional options.

All that said... I really don't want to ever see Turn 2 Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage, Turn 3 Geist, Turn 4 Populating Angels. Then again, there are a lot of God hands that I don't want to see...

It may be my inner Timmy and/or budget speaking, but I really want to just do a Loxodon Smiter/Deadbridge Goliath/Wandering Temple midrange deck. Value cards with Lingering Souls, Call of the Conclave, Armada Wurm, huge creatures for cheap, and great lategame reach through populating 8/8 Vigilant Elementals, 5/5 Fliers, Scavenging Goliath, and so on.

[Mystic Muse]

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I don't really have a list, but I would start with 4 Thragtusk, 4 Avacyn's Pilgrim and go from there. You might want some Thragtusks anyways, they're going to be all-stars for the next year.

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Alright. I'm guessing that, since this is a tokens deck, Intangible virtue is pretty much a given?

[tgva8889]

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A UGw or UWg deck could easily run Growing Ranks and Rootbound Defenses. Unlike decks that are relying on repetitive population, a deck with Cackling Counterpart probably only needs to populate once or twice for such ridiculous advantage. I mean, how many times do you actually need to populate Thragtusk? I choose Thragtusk because he's the best possible Cackling Counterpart target in such a deck, but there are other options that are all good (Restoration Angel and Wolfir Silverheart come to mind). The mana is good enough that I could imagine playing straight WGU if you wanted, though you'd be a bit slower. I mean, they did it in Innistrad Block Constructed. 8 more dual lands should make it much more plausible.

You don't need to Populate that many times and you don't need to populate into an army. Demonic Rising is good with Populate for this very reason. With it in play, if you are ever stuck with 1 creature, all of your Populate spells become live. High Priest is also somewhat unreliable, as literally every removal spell anyone will ever play can kill it except Tragic Slip and until then it's a pretty bad 1/2 for 2, but both have the same value of making large tokens which is really where Populate thrives. It's the larger size of your tokens that really matters for Populate, not your having a bajillion of them.

Populate is more powerful with Call of the Conclave than with Lingering Souls. It's more powerful with Demonic Rising than with Lingering Souls. It's more powerful with Geist of St. Traft than Lingering Souls. What you really want to be doing is making large tokens, not a lot of tokens. I would start thus at looking at the ways to make the best tokens, not more tokens, which is why I start with Call of the Conclave.

Also, the best cards with the Populate mechanic are Trostani and Rootbound Defenses, so if you're trying to build a dedicated Populate deck I suggest you start there.

In response to above, since I posted this before I saw that:

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Intangible Virtue is actually of somewhat questionable value since every GB deck will be playing Abrupt Decay if it can and many will be playing Golgari Charm somewhere in their 75. You may as well play other ways to pump that are a little less vulnerable, like Sorin emblems.

[Mystic Muse]

In response to above, since I posted this before I saw that:

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Intangible Virtue is actually of somewhat questionable value since every GB deck will be playing Abrupt Decay if it can and many will be playing Golgari Charm somewhere in their 75. You may as well play other ways to pump that are a little less vulnerable, like Sorin emblems.

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So, a deck that runs everything but red. That strikes me as a not so fantastic idea.

[Eldariel]

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If you were going to do W/U/G tokens, what kind of list would you put together? I don't really want to drop a lot of money then find out the version I would go with (Haven't really tried to come up with anything because I need to sleep soon) sucks.

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You could of course try building it in some program like Cockatrice or MWS first and see how it runs before buying it; removes the risk of buying cards you don't want.

[tgva8889]

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I mean, you want to choose whether you like Junk (GWB) or Bant (GWU) for your deck. You don't want to play all 4 colors. That's just too many.

[Mystic Muse]

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You could of course try building it in some program like Cockatrice or MWS first and see how it runs before buying it; removes the risk of buying cards you don't want.

I know. People here just generally seem to know what they're talking about, and know a heck of a lot more about the game than I do (I've only been playing standard for a little over five months, and never competitively), so I figured somebody would pretty much be able to come up with a better idea than whatever I built, and do it quicker (Involves Return to Ravnica cards which I don't think gets put in the databases of programs like that until the set actually comes out. I may be wrong about that though.)

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I mean, you want to choose whether you like Junk (GWB) or Bant (GWU) for your deck. You don't want to play all 4 colors. That's just too many.

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Will probably go GWU unless I win the Sorins I bid on. I know my cousin has a few Hinterland Harbors he'd probably be willing to let go of, but I don't know anybody with Isolated chapels or Woodland cemeteries they'd be willing to let go of.

[tgva8889]

Yeah, cards from new sets generally don't get added into simulators for a while.

I haven't put my mind to serious deck building, so if someone else has a deck you may want to take a look at that.

You know, you can always use a printer to make some pretty good-quality proxies by just printing black-and-white copies of the card images off the Card Image Gallery and putting them in some sleeves, in case you wanted to test something.

[Mystic Muse]

Yeah, cards from new sets generally don't get added into simulators for a while.

I haven't put my mind to serious deck building, so if someone else has a deck you may want to take a look at that.

You know, you can always use a printer to make some pretty good-quality proxies by just printing black-and-white copies of the card images off the Card Image Gallery and putting them in some sleeves, in case you wanted to test something.

I'm going to ask my friends if it's okay if I can just use proxies by writing on the backs of useless cards to test ideas out (I use cases, so just make the backs the front and I've got a decent proxy). I'll probably still go with 4 Thragtusks like you suggested if I can manage to sell some cards to get the money.

[Sohala]

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Prerelease Info

So, we get a non-guildleader promo and a rare slot, a rare slot that can only select your guild leader in it IF it would be a mythic.

I am thinking of taking Azorius or Selesnya with that information. Get a single populate after getting the token, now you are sitting with two 8/8 vig guys; on the other hand a 4/5 flyer who locks down two trouble makers should be able to hold the sky. Golgari is not too bad either, backed by enough scavenge.

Though I do like the regular art Grove better.

[The Extinguisher]

Does anyone here no things about Vintage? We're making a proxy Vintage league at my school, and this is what I'm thinking of running.

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4x Delver of Secrets
3x Snapcaster Mage
3x Tarmogoyf

1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Black Lotus

3x Preordain
1x Timewalk
1x Ponder

4x Force of Will
4x Gush
3x Red Elemental Blast
3x Lightning Bolt
3x Mental Mistep
2x Mindbreak Trap
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Brainstorm
1x Steel Sabotage

2x Jace, the Mindsculptor

4x Volcanic Island
4x Scalding Tarn
3x Misty Rainforest
3x Tropical Island
1x Island
1x Strip Mine


SB

1x Jace, the Mindsculptor
2x Grim Lavamancer
1x Lightning Bolt
2x Ancient Grudge
2x Krosan Grip
1x Hurkyl's Recall
4x Surgical Extraction
2x Pyroblast

The sideboard is fairly generic for now, because I have no idea what our metagame is going to create.

[IthilanorStPete]

So what do you all think the meta's going to look like post-rotation? From what I've been reading, here's my assessment of the main players:

-Zombies, in BG and BR varieties
-Delver, both UW and UR. Most of the hype I've been seeing for Delver proper has been UR; the main reason to go UW is Geist of St. Traft.
-G/R/x/y midrange decks; Naya, Jund, 4 color.
-Blue-based control; what I've seen has mostly been either UW or UBG.
-Mono-R aggro, because people always play mono-R right after a set comes out.

Any major players I'm missing?

I know. People here just generally seem to know what they're talking about, and know a heck of a lot more about the game than I do (I've only been playing standard for a little over five months, and never competitively), so I figured somebody would pretty much be able to come up with a better idea than whatever I built, and do it quicker (Involves Return to Ravnica cards which I don't think gets put in the databases of programs like that until the set actually comes out. I may be wrong about that though.)

RtR's up on Cockatrice and MWS now.

[Sith_Happens]

What metric are the Duels of the Planeswalkers leaderboard rankings based on? One of my cousins is currently #17 in single-player on PC, so I'm wondering precisely what it is the game has deemed him to be awesome at.

[Mystic Muse]

Okay, question based on a few cards I've seen with similar abilities.

Do you normally get to choose what you untap during your untap step, or do you untap everything unless an effect specifically states otherwise? For example Rust Tick makes it sound like you normally don't get a choice whether you keep your permanents tapped or untapped, you have to untap them, unless an effect specifically states otherwise.

[Cogwheel]

Do you normally get to choose what you untap during your untap step, or do you untap everything unless an effect specifically states otherwise? For example Rust Tick makes it sound like you normally don't get a choice whether you keep your permanents tapped or untapped, you have to untap them, unless an effect specifically states otherwise.

You guessed correctly. No choice unless the card says otherwise.

[Shadow of the Sun]

Well, I went to the prerelease.

Played Rakdos.

Lost. Badly.

But I'm happy.

Return To Ravnica is going to give me a bunch of cards I can use to complete my monoblack control deck, which will be good.

Such as, for example, Desecration Demon.

A 4 mana source of repeatable creature destruction or a 6/6 smasher? Sold!

[Klose_the_Sith]

So, after having been out of Magic for a very long time my internal resistance has buckled and I've fallen back into the game that remains my first geek love (I think I was 9? I was awful, but it was still fun).

I just got a few (18) M13 boosters for cheap on eBay and I was hoping to use whatever I got in those as the basis for a new deck that's up to date with whatever hip and happening things are going on in the game today. So what should I look out for from those packs that's worth keeping/using? It'll only really be for casual play, but some of my opponents tend to be a bit serious in their casual so hopefully I can end up with a fearsome speed-bump to bother them.

[Shadow of the Sun]

So what do you all think the meta's going to look like post-rotation? From what I've been reading, here's my assessment of the main players:

From what I've seen, you could do a very good Rakdos Control deck.

The following is my current (uncompleteted) monoblack control deck:

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Lands
23 x Swamps

Creatures
4 x Vampire Nighthawk
2 x Desecration Demon
1 x Necropolis Regent

Planeswakers
2 x Liliana of the Dark Realms

Sorceries/Instants
4 x Murder
4 x Night Terrors
4 x Sign in Blood
4 x Mutilate
4 x Mind Rot
4 x Duress

Enchantments
4 x Underworld Connections

If you make the following changes:

Replace, say, 5 of the swamps with mountains or with shocklands etc.
Replace the Murders with Dreadbore
Replace the Mutilates with Rakdos's Returns

You'd have a reasonably good deck. A bit of card draw (which can also be used as a last hit of life loss to finish the opponent), a fair bit of discard, creature destruction- the win condition would either be getting the Necropolis Regent out and going stompy, or using Liliana of the Dark Realms to fuel a massive Rakdos's Return.

The sideboard would include a bit of artefact destruction and Slaughter Games to disable threats before they can hit the field.

[Foeofthelance]

Just got back from the prerelease, and ended up going 3-1 to earn 7th of 34. I picked Izzet, despite all the warnings about it being the weakest, and did pretty good all told. I played two games against Rakdos, which ended up being the easiest, as they tended to get screwed over by Unleash. Third game was against another Izzet, and that was a close run thing as we tried to nibble each other to death. The one match loss was against Golgari, as Scavenge just made his creatures too big to handle. Final deck ended up being:

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17 Lands
8x Islands
6x Mountains
3x Izzet Guildgate

16 Creatures
1x Door Keeper
2x Hover Barrier
2x Tower Drake
2x Isperia's Skywatch
1x Lobber Crew
1x Viashino Racketeer
3x Tenement Crasher
1x Goblin Electromancer
1x Izzet Static Caster
1x Hypersonic Dragon
1x Frostburn Weird

7 Spells
1x Dispel
2x Cancel
1x Mizzium Mortars
1x Explosive Impact
2x Essence Backlash

Best Creature: Tenement Crasher. These guys just broke games open, especially with Mizzium Mortars clearing their way and Isperia's Skywatcher's holding down blockers.

Best Spell: Essence Backlash. The Rakdos players hated this guy, and it wasn't hard to see why. It can be hard enough watching your bomb creatures get countered; it's even worse when you end up taking five or six damage in the bargain. But Essence Backlash wasn't just for big creatures, as my Izzet match was won by pinging the other guy with his own Frostburn Weird late in the game.

Least Useful Card: Dispel. It never saw play, and the only time it proved of any use was for paying off Viashino Racketeer.

[tgva8889]

Went 3-2 with Selesnya for 4 boosters. Selesnya is by far the best guild. No other guild has the tools to deal with an 8/8 that can be populated. Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage and Trostani are so unbeatable it isn't even a contest. Of our top 4, half were Selesnya, as were 5th and 6th. My only loses were to other Selesnya decks; if you weren't playing Selesnya, it was almost impossible for me to lose to you.

[9mm]

Went 3-2 with Selesnya for 4 boosters. Selesnya is by far the best guild. No other guild has the tools to deal with an 8/8 that can be populated. Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage and Trostani are so unbeatable it isn't even a contest. Of our top 4, half were Selesnya, as were 5th and 6th. My only loses were to other Selesnya decks; if you weren't playing Selesnya, it was almost impossible for me to lose to you.

funny Azorius crushed my prerelease, with Selesnya coming in third behind Izzit.

[tgva8889]

I mean, Selesnya can lose, but the value on the 8/8 is insane. Every game I lost involved that guy or a repeatable Populate effect. The 8/8 is an unreasonable amount of value. I could see winning with Azorious or Izzet but you definitely would need some fliers to do so.

[IthilanorStPete]

I went 3-1 with Azorius, splashing red for 2 Street Spasms and 2 Mercurial Chemisters. Chemister was just nuts for me; he takes over a game pretty much immediately. I had a good curve of fliers followed up by Archon and Sphinx of the Chimes, which worked well. I played two matches against Selesnya, and didn't see the land in any of the games. Speaking of populate, though, one of those opponents did have Growing Ranks...nearly ran me over, but I had Detention Sphere to clear out his tokens, and he just never had another token maker.

I pulled really well in my packs - from the 6 boosters from Sealed, I had:
-2*Chemister
-Sphinx of the Chime
-Underworld Connections
-Martial Law
-Detention Sphere
And then I had two prize packs...pulled a Vraska and a Steam Vents.

[Sinfonian]

Just got home from my pre-release, where I'd chosen Golgari (figuring that even if I didn't manage to do well that I had a good chance of recouping the cost of entry). I had a very solid pool for playing in my chosen guild including Overgrown Tomb, Jarad (not from my guild pack), 2 Stab Wounds, and plenty of Salvage creatures/targets. Also pulled: Temple Garden, Mercurial Chemister, Grove of the Guardian, and Grave Betrayal (decided it wouldn't have enough impact to maindeck).

Ended up going 4-1-1 into the Top 8, where we all split for 8 packs and to go home and see our families (6 Swiss rounds was LONG, since every round went to time). Selesnya won the guild contest by about 12, trouncing the competition. I think Rakdos took second. I was the only Golgari in the top 8.

Prize packs netted me: Hallowed Fountain, Sphinx's Revelation, Counterflux, Ash Zealot, Palisade Giant, and Cryptborn Horror. (Got an IOU from the shop for the other 2 packs).

All in all, a great day and my first Top 8. I even got the Doubling Season I'd had my eye on forever.

[Sohala]

Oh! I want to share, I want to share!

So, I picked Golgari thinking that at the very least I will get value creatures with salvage. I go on to open a total of 3 salvage creatures and MAYBE 9 decent cards for green and black combined. In disgust I tossed them aside and looked at my other colors. Red had some nice large bodies, blue had some flyers, white had flyers, and all three had a spray of removal and control, so I put them all in one deck.

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12 basics lands
2 Transguild Promenade
2 Azorius Guildgate

1 New Prahv Guildmage
1 Guttersnipe
1 Stealer of Secrets
3 Sunspire Griffin
3 Runewing
1 Hypersonic Dragon
1 Mercurial Chemister
2 Tenement Crasher
1 Utvara Hellkite

2 Dispel
1 Syncopate
1 Cancel
1 Paralyzing Grasp
1 Arrest
1 Avenging Arrow
1 Annihilating Fire
1 Thoughtflare
1 Trostani's Judgement

First round was vs an Izzit. Our first game was very back in forth, but with him in a stronger position most of the time. The last few turns though, WOW!
Fifth to last: I drop Utvara Hellkite and hit him for 2, putting him at 18.
Fourth to last: Asks to know how many cards I have left (he milled with Psychic Spiral the turn after Epic Experiament), 4 is all I had, his wall could mill me out on his next turn.
Third to last: Swing for 8, putting him at 10, get a dragon, call end of turn, he uses wall to mill me to 1. With the top decked Trostani's Judgement I exile the wall and get another dragon.
Second to last: Land, pass.
Last turn: Draw my last card, swing for 20, get three dragons!

He won the next one thru Essence Backlash and early creatures. I swap the Dispels in now to fix the counter problem.

Last game ended with me at 2 life and him with no cards left in his library, but killed by damage.

Second round was vs an Azorius splashing green for Grove of the Guardian, Coursers' Accord and a Druid's Deliverance. He had some white stuff to increase the splash's viability. First game goes to me after landing an unanswered Tenement Crasher. Second went to him with a populated Grove. I took the last game, bluffing an Avenging Arrow against his Righteous Authority enchanted Armory Guard, and he had a gate.

Third round was vs a Golgari splashing white. First game I won, being in full control as New Prahv Guildmage and Mercurial Chemister did serious work to his board. Second game a nail biter, him having a couple early creatures and lifelink, plus late game having a Korozda Guildmage and Rogue's Passage slip creatures thru my line. New Prahv Guildmage was again a heavy lifter, locking down two creatures a turn to stall until I could get something on the board. On my last turn I decided to go all or nothing against him not having a fog, dropping a second Tenement Crasher followed by my Hypersonic Dragon, swinging for 16. I won with 2 life.

Fourth and final round was rather a letdown. It was vs a Rakdos, who described his deck afterwards as, "A pile of cheap crappy creatures." His small creatures backed up by cheap burn and cheap pump spells proved too fast for my deck, and I lost without giving him much of a challenge. His pair of Pack Rats didn't help me either.

So, I ended up going 3-1, playing a deck without any card from my guild, opening lackluster rares, but having a total blast with a deck that I thought was going to lose really bad.

[Science Officer]

Off to pre-release tomorrow, hopefully, but before that, how about some bad deck ideas for the new standard?

izzet_dead_yet.cod

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4 Guttersnipe
4 Goblin Electromancer

4 Desperate Ravings
4 Brimstone Volley
4 Izzet Charm
3 Electrickery
4 Cyclonic Rift
3 Negate

3 Mizzium Mortars
4 Divination

9 Island
10 Mountain
4 Izzet Guildgate

the idea is to get out electromancers and guttersnipes, and then play lots of burn, draw, and counters. Desperate Ravings is really very nice with Goblin Electromancer. Think Twice might be worth considering. Electromancers also make overload costs more palatable.

seance.cod

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3 Mirror-Mad Phantasm
2 Laboratory Maniac
4 Tower Geist
4 Armored Skaab
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage
4 Gatecreeper Vine

3 Tracker's Instincts

3 Oblivion Ring
4 Séance

4 Azorius Guildgate
4 Selesnya Guildgate
3 Plains
6 Island
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Forest

So here's the combo: if you have Seance in play, one or more Mirror-Mad Phantasms in the yard, and no Phantasms in your deck, you can win.
During your opponent's upkeep, Seance out a Phantasm token. Activate its ability. The token gets "shuffled" into the deck, and you then start milling stuff to find the next Phantasm.
As there's none left, you end up milling the entire deck.
During your upkeep, Seance out a Laboratory Maniac token. Win during your draw-step.

Problems: -Combo is very slow and disruptable -Doesn't work if you have a Phantasm left in the deck. but if you only play one, you'll never draw it...
Still, it's a lot of fun, and generates a lot of card advantage.

Considered Parallel Lives or Growing Ranks to churn out more Seance tokens, but using the Guildmage seems more expedient. Deck might actually be playable without the combo and instead just abusing Seance for card advantage.

tokens_and_enchantments.cod

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3 Geist-Honored Monk
4 Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage

4 Martial Law
4 Detention Sphere
3 Mana Bloom
3 Sphere of Safety
3 Soul Tithe
3 Abundant Growth
3 Paralyzing Grasp
3 Security Blockade
1 Touch of the Eternal

3 Selesnya Charm

5 Forest
5 Plains
5 Island
4 Azorius Guildgate
4 Selesnya Guildgate

..and then there's this monstrosity. When I saw Sphere of Safety, I was so excited. I thought to myself, "I could make a gloriously un-fun deck with this." And I hope that is what has mostly been achieved. There's enough token producers and proliferaters that you can at least pretend like you want to win the game.


Anyways, I thought these ideas were interesting, or intriguingly terrible. Hope you found them so.


EDIT: Sorry for the double post, was getting 503 errors.

The thing with Back from the Brink is that it costs 6, Seance is already pretty slow for not doing much before turn 4. Also, getting tokens for free is nice.

[Sohala]

You could include Back from the Brink in your Séance deck, but leans away from the combo. Armada Wurm might get included in a Brink version.

BTW, you double posted.

[IthilanorStPete]

1 Hypersonic Dragon
1 Mercurial Chemister
1 Utvara Hellkite

opening lackluster rares

These might not be the most valuable cards price-wise, but they're very solid for Limited. Chemister in particular is very, very good. Glad you did well with a rather unorthodox pool, though!

Off to pre-release tomorrow, hopefully, but before that, how about some bad deck ideas for the new standard?

izzet_dead_yet.cod

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4 Guttersnipe
4 Goblin Electromancer

4 Desperate Ravings
4 Brimstone Volley
4 Izzet Charm
3 Electrickery
4 Cyclonic Rift
3 Negate

3 Mizzium Mortars
4 Divination

9 Island
10 Mountain
4 Izzet Guildgate

the idea is to get out electromancers and guttersnipes, and then play lots of burn, draw, and counters. Desperate Ravings is really very nice with Goblin Electromancer. Think Twice might be worth considering. Electromancers also make overload costs more palatable.

Add some Delvers and some rare lands for colorfixing, and you've pretty much got the UR Delver deck that's been floating around. This is the most recent list I've seen:

4 Sulfur Falls
4 Steam Vents
2 Desolate Lighthouse
6 Mountain
7 Island
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Goblin Electromancer
3 Guttersnipe
4 Talrand's Invocation
3 Mizzium Mortars
4 Pillar of Flame
3 Bonfire of the Damned
2 Syncopate
4 Desperate Ravings
2 Izzet Charm

[Fable Wright]

Went 3-2 with Selesnya for 4 boosters. Selesnya is by far the best guild. No other guild has the tools to deal with an 8/8 that can be populated. Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage and Trostani are so unbeatable it isn't even a contest. Of our top 4, half were Selesnya, as were 5th and 6th. My only loses were to other Selesnya decks; if you weren't playing Selesnya, it was almost impossible for me to lose to you.

I will have to disagree with this. I also went Selesnya, but I have to say that while it can certainly be the most powerful deck, that isn't always going to be the case. My sealed pool contained tons and tons of proliferate cards (Four Dryad's Deliverances...) and no token producers. I saw no Vitu-Ghazi Guildmages, either. While Selesnya decks can certainly be the most powerful deck if they get a god-like pool, I can safely say that they are by no means unbeatable. Also, I wish to say that other guilds do have the tools to deal with that 8/8. Red guilds have Traitorous Instinct, Black guilds Assassin's Strike, Green can ignore it with Golgari Decoy and swinging in for the win, blue can Blustersquall to ignore it or Cyclonic Rift it away, white can eliminate it with Trostani's Judgement and Martial Law. Azorius has Detention Sphere, Dramatic Rescue, Azorious Charm, and Supreme Verdict. Golgari has Abrupt Decay and creatures as big (and occasionally bigger) than the Elemental and can just dodge it with Korozda Guildmage or just block with regenerators or deathtouchers, Rakdos can kill you with its Charm or the token with Dreadbore, and the Izzet can tap it down and swing in for the win, or kill you with Guttersnipe, or however the Izzet decks win. Probably with Hypersonic Dragon.

I haven't played with another guild yet, but I wouldn't count them out. Carnival Hellsteed is terrifying. Corpsejack Menace gets you the same kind of ridiculous value that Grove can (ever seen someone with a Menace on the field and scavengers in the bin?), Hypersonic Dragon is a big hasty flier, and the Archon usually wins the game if you get an attack step with it.

Again, I'm not saying that Selesnya isn't silly when it works right. When it does work right, it can be almost impossible to stop. I'm just saying that it isn't necessarily the best guild; it does have the most internal synergy, by design, and that can lead to some ridiculously powerful pools that are much more obvious in the top 8; I will not deny that a lucky Selesnya pool will outclass most other lucky pools. However, other guilds are usually less hit and miss; Scavenge is a mechanic that can work by itself, without needing any support cards (though Corpsejack Menace is silly with it) and turn out more consistent (and still good) results. Rakdos can either be lightning fast out of the starting gate and win without a lot of lucky synergistic pulls or bomb rares, and Azorius can have an unmatched aerial armada.

Tl;dr: Selesnya is not the best guild; it has the potential to be the most powerful, but it is much less reliable at being good than the other guilds are.