Alright, going to go from last place to first place. All of the decks are interesting designs, and I made notations on possible areas for improvements.
Name: Xaarvaxus
Deck: Kogla
Competitiveness: Low. Replaying creatures that have ETB effects can be powerful, but some of the cards selected didn't seem to benefit the deck overall (
Evolving Wilds would have been better as a
forest, you can recurr
Veteran Explorer but it has a death trigger, not an ETB and not sure the purpose for
Liquimetal Coating in the deck), making for some dead cards in hand.
Newbie Friendliness: Low. Bounce effects need careful timing and precise application
Fun Factor: Moderate
Cost: $48.47
I like the idea of Kogla in command of an army of humans, utilizing poolwerful effects repeatedly and helping humans dodge removal. Unfortunately, not a lot of ETB humans seemed to have made the list.
Name: SkirkProspector
Deck: Changeling
Competitiveness: Moderate. Repeatable tutoring makes finding answers much easier. Changelings definitely abuse tribal effects, but the non-ally, non-Changelings
Newbie Friendliness: Low. You have to know all of the interactions of the cards to know what to tutor.
Fun Factor: Modest. When the deck gets rolling, it runs really well. When it falters, it gets steamrolled.
Cost: $49.24
Abusing the effect of Changelings having all creature types for a multi-tribal tribal deck seems exciting and fun, and great way to get into all five colors. Unfortunately, the decks seems to get Mana stalled easily, and having key (non changling) cards stalls the endgame plan a bit.
Name: Mynus
Deck: Omnath - Landfall
Competitiveness: Moderate. Creature count seems a little low at first, but Omnath's landfall making elementals, and the ability to convert lands to creatures, helps. Disappointed not to see
Dictate of the Twin Gods providing surprise victory, considering it is a 24 cent card. Overall high CMC, likely to need to reach at least three turns before it fully joins the game.
Newbie Friendliness:. Moderate to high. Cards support each other well, and land plays are not wasted turns late game.
Fun Factor: High
Cost: $49.65
I love landfall decks. I made a landfall deck back when Zendikar was in Standard, roughly $20 worth of cards, and a friend bought it from me for $50. He was very pleased with how it ran, and took on high powered decks with it. That said, it still gets into the game a little later than most of the other decks.
Name: Paulusdeboself
Deck: A Tale of Wolf and Elf
Competitiveness:. Moderate. Low average CMC, deathtouch wolves with fight ETB can be powerful. But most of the creatures don't tie together with as much cohesion as they could.
Newbie Friendliness: Moderate.
Fun Factor:Moderate
Cost: $47.41
Love the flavor with the Commander, love the wolf army.
Name: MonteTribal
Deck: Cycling
Competitiveness: High in one on one. Low interactivity for cycling, payoff for working quickly through the deck. Tokens make medium competitiveness in multiplayer.
Newbie Friendliness: Low. Need to plan out when and how to cycle or cast spells.
Fun Factor: Moderate.
Cost: $49.58
Cycling let's you reach key cards quickly, but timing is critical, and right now I know a lot of players are out gunning for cycling decks. For some reason, cycling has made them mad...
Name: Rinzier
Deck: Budget Aristocrats -
Teysa KarlovCompetitiveness: High.
Deathpact Angel would give a self recurring creature that gives an extra sac creature each time.
Pawn of Ulamog provides Mana growth in the form of token generation. That said, the deck does it's intended purpose and does it well, protecting it's player with powerful effects.
Newbie Friendliness: Low. Timing on Sac and Recursion is critical to running the deck properly.
Fun Factor: Moderate.
Cost: $49.75
This and the next decks were the hardest to fit into the ranking. They have a lot in Comm n, and while both need to be kept in check early on...
Name: WWolfe
Deck: Alesha Budget
Competitiveness: High. Mardu Aristocrats. Not having to attack to damage all opponents helps with board stalls. Plenty of sac outlets and looting effects to feed the graveyard for Alesha to
pillage.
Hollowhenge Spirit or
Labyrinth of Skophos (
Reconnaissance would be a bit pricey for a budget deck) might have made an interesting combat trick with Alesha on a stalled board state. Not a deck I would want to take on solo, or at least without graveyard killing effects.
Newbie Friendliness:. Low. Timing is critical with plays to make best use of the deck, both for returning creatures from the graveyard to play and in best utilizing the wide range of effects.
Fun Factor: Moderate.
Cost: $47.90
I think Mardu adding red gives it just a tiny bit of an added bite to take advantage. But again, this was an extremely tough call as both decks were extremely well crafted.
Name:. Bonethor
Deck: Growing Concern
Competitiveness: Moderate. Would have loved seeing
Biomancer's Familiar (50 cents) here, but definitely a deck that runs on high gear right from the start. Having a
backup plan in
Simic Ascendancy, with easy ways to double counters, definitely on the right track. Would also have liked to have seen a way to tap
Gilder Bairn for Mana (with
Biomancer's Familiar, this would let
Gilder Bairn go infinite). Still, highly effective deck!
Newbie Friendliness: I feel like this deck, with lots of early plays and synergy, would be easy for a new player to take advantage of.
Fun Factor: High.
Cost: $49.99
While this deck might not be as competitive, per say, as the Aristocrats decks, I can see myself having an absolute blast playing it, and I can see a new player getting addicted to the game very quickly to Magic pulling all kinds of Simic
shenanigans while not having to go on pure offensive...
Name: Robort
Deck: Bark at the Moon
Competitiveness: High. Beanstalk Giant/Fertile Footsteps seems like a better option than
Beneath the Sands. That said, aggro decks usually
falter in multiplayer games, but the
abundance of token generation makes this deck highly competitive. With multiple ways to gain trample (or
Champion of Lambholt just letting you swing unblocked), this deck quickly becomes a threat.
Newbie Friendliness: Single color, low CMC demands. A new player can pilot this deck without issue.
Fun Factor: Who wouldn't want to lead an entire pack of wolves into battle?
Cost: $48.31
Which brings me to the winner. The pure synergy of purpose means that a new player could quickly understand how the deck works, and it is a feel good aggro deck that can take some risks. The main thing I can think of is needing a little more protection for some of the stronger cards, but overall a fun deck to play.