The decklist for the single event deck for Dragon’s Maze has been spoiled and it looks to be a decent value without being over the top. The deck actually seems somewhat fun as well. It is a ‘Junk Tokens’ kind of build.

Here’s the list:

4 Evolving Wilds
6 Forest
1 Godless Shrine
1 Grove of the Guardian
7 Plains
4 Selesnya Guildgate
1 Swamp

24 lands

1 Champion of Lambholt
2 Doomed Traveler
1 Geist-Honored Monk
1 Odric, Master Tactician
2 Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage
1 Wayfaring Temple

8 creatures

1 Advent of the Wurm
4 Call of the Conclave
1 Growing Ranks
1 Increasing Devotion
4 Intangible Virtue
3 Lingering Souls
1 Parallel Lives
2 Rancor
3 Rootborn Defenses
4 Selesnya Charm
4 Wake the Reflections

28 other spells

 
Sideboard
4 Centaur Healer
3 Druid’s Deliverance
4 Pacifism
1 Rogue’s Passage
3 Sundering Growth

 

Let us analyse the Rares here:

 

Godless Shrine

 

Yes, this is where the bulk of the rare value went. At an MSRP of 19.99$ (one that store are very likely to stick to, for a change) this is a great inclusion indeed. Wizards of the Coast is really pushing Modern by practically giving these to us. In the deck, the only purpose of this card is to allow us to flashback Lingering Souls.

 

Grove of the Guardian

 

We all would have prefered an M13 dual or something else here, but this is a Populate deck. It really didn’t help its value that it was a Pre-release card as well. Still, I’m all for fun when it comes to these decks – so Populate away!

 

Champion of Lambholt

 

 

This card is rather good in terms of value and playability. It’s not insane value, but it trades really well. In a token strategy it acts as a kind of lord, but not the generic kind that just gives +1/+1 to your team. I have seen it played in certain Naya Aggro lists or Human decks and it’s actually quite decent.

 

Geist-Honored Monk

 

Ah! Another card that is great for the deck in terms of playability but bad in terms of value. The art on this card is my favorite part.

 

Odric, Master Tactician

 

 

He works well with the fact that the deck will want to spam a ton of creatures. He basically gets to attack and probably make your opponent not block anything allowing you to inflict mass amounts of damage, if not the lethal blow. Not really good in terms of value, but I approve of his inclusion.

 

Wayfaring Temple

 

This is probably the first card out of the deck and into people’s trade binders. It’s bad, like really bad. I guess it’s in there to educate the newer players that some cards are not as good as they seem. While I understand this, I do not like the fact that it’s in there. They could have put Scion of the Vitu-Gazi in there instead.

 

Advent of the Wurm

 

Oh yes! take me to Value Town! this is one of the hotter cards from Dragon’s Maze and it’s quite cool to see it included in this Event deck. This and Godless Shrine pretty much justify the 19.99$ face value of the deck by themselves. It fits in nicely in the deck theme as well, they didn’t just toss in a random big rare. Post rotation, this thing will probably go higher in value despite being in the Event deck.

 

Growing Ranks

 

Great casual card to put in here. While it’s not really super competitive, it’s not half bad really. In terms of value, we can probably look elsewhere though.

 

Increasing Devotion

 

Probably not great in terms of value here, but it’s a great token genrator. It allows you to overcommit and still have some gas left for the late game, if there is one. This plus Champion of Lambholt can be a blowout mid to late game.

 

Parallel Lives

 

Much like Growing Ranks, it does not do much on its own. It’s probably never going to make it in any serious token decklist, but it’s got a great casual appeal (which would explain its 4$ price tag). You can probably shove this in your trade binder and use it to get other cards you want.

 

That about wraps it up for the ‘Rare Value’ analysis. At this point we’re at about just under 30$ value off of rares. The thing is, the greater part of the value lies in the Uncommons of the deck. Let us see:

 

4 x Intangible Virtue

2 x Rancor

2 x Selesnya Charm

3 x Lingering Souls

 

That’s 18$ right there! this is something that a lot of the previous Event decks lacked (all the deck value was Rares or there just wasn’t much to begin with).

 

Final Verdict

While we are far from getting an insane value out of it, it exemlifies what Wizards sought out to do:

1) purchase deck

2) open it and sleeve it (optional)

3) play it at a local FNM

4) have fun!

 

The decision to only make one Event deck this time was probably due to the fact that there was always one Event deck that would easily outsell the other. This would cause the retailers to have to ‘overpice’ the popular deck and ‘underprice’ the other so as to not be left with all of the less popular decks. Also, Ready/Willing would have been a perfect addition to this deck.

I think they could have done a slightly better job here, but as someone once quoted:

” Even if Wizards of the Coast put 100$ bills in the boosters, people would still find a way to complain”.