Venser vs. Koth – A Closer Look

The latest duel deck was released last week March 30 featuring Venser vs Koth – both planeswalkers. As usual this set will include 2 60-card decks ready to be played straight from the box.

Koth’s deck is pure red. The entire deck will be mountain based with splashes of artifact cards. Koth’s deck is pretty easy to play as his spell’s effectiveness depends on the number of mountains controlled. The problem with this concept is that red cannot accelerate lands as fast as green does.

I personally find Koth’s deck to be a disappointment. Aside from the planeswalker himself, there really aren’t any explosive red spells in this deck. From a red player’s point of view, the only notable cards are Vulshok Sorceror, Plated Geopede, Anger, Torchling, and Searing Blaze. Even those cards can’t save this deck. I just felt they could’ve added much better options like Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle.

Venser’s deck is white/blue control. The deck focuses on returning or exiling your own creatures and utilizes their “enters the battlefield” effect trigger. Venser’s secondary win condition is to use a select few unblockable creatures and sneak in lethal attacks.

Venser’s deck did not fare much better. This deck gives you some of the essentials of playing an exile based control deck and the lands given are much better than Koth’s.  Strangely enough for a control deck, there are fewer spells in Venser’s deck than Koth. Venser’s creatures are bland as with the spells. The highlights in this deck are Preordain, Path to Exile, Oblivion Ring, Clone, and Sunblast Angel.

Overall, I feel that this set lacks in value compared to Magic’s previous duel decks released. The cards given are overall mediocre. However, all is not lost. Venser, Koth, Plated Geopede, Chartooth Cougar, Anger, Preordain, and Path to Exile feature amazing alternate artwork. Venser and Koth are worth a hefty sum so it’s a fair tradeoff.

(Source: Wiki MTG Salvation)