Ravnica: City of Guilds

Ravnica: City of Guilds is a The Gathering set and is the first set in the Ravnica Block. Ravnica was released on October 7, 2005 (prerelease events were held worldwide on September 24 and 25, 2005). Its expansion symbol is a tower.

Storyline

Following in the tradition of recent Magic blocks, Ravnica takes place in a The Gathering) of the Dominaria multiverse that was previously unexplored in the game's backstory. The world of Ravnica is an ecumenopolis, a vast city that covers the entire surface of its planet, and is home to a diverse assortment of sentient races. For ten thousand years, there has been a power struggle between the ten guilds, political factions that each represent a combination of two of The Gathering#The colors of Magic. Ten millennia ago, the Guildpact was signed by the leaders of the ten factions, ending active warfare between them and ushering in an era of peace. But now, on the eve of the celebrations of the accord's ten thousandth anniversary, a sinister force threatens the survival of that peace.

Guilds

Of the ten guilds that rule Ravnica, four are the focus of this first set in the block. The next expansion, Guildpact, focused only on three other guilds, and the last set in the block, Dissension, brought it to a close by introducing the last three guilds. Each guild corresponds to a different two-color combination.

All multicolor cards in Ravnica are associated with one of these four guilds. Each guild will always have these following cards:

A legendary leader, who includes two mana of each of the guild's colors as a cost.
A legendary champion, who encourages players to play with cards of both of the guild's colors. The champion includes 1 mana of each of the guild's color in their cost.
A signet, a common artifact which produces 2 mana of the guild's colors.
A common "karoo" land, which returns a land to hand when it comes into play (tapped), but produces 2 mana of the guild's color.
An uncommon "guildhome" land, which normally produce colorless mana but has special abilities.
A rare "dual" land (that has basic land types even though they are non-basic), which can be tapped for one of two possible mana color.
A rare guild-affiliated artifact.
3 hybrid mana cards, 1 of each rarity level, with the uncommon one is always the guildmage who costs 2 hybrid mana to play, and also have 2/2 body and 2 abilities associated to both colors.
Miscellaneous spells of each of the guild's colors that are "enhanced" if played also using the guild's other color.

The four guilds featured in Ravnica are:

The Boros Legion (red/white): The militaristic guild, they act as enforcers of order on Ravnica, and are not against using force to keep the peace. The Boros Legion is epitomized by the actions of the Wojek League, the police force of Ravnica. They are inspired by the archangel Razia. The champion, Agrus Kos, is a Wojek veteran and was the main character in the Ravnica books.
The Golgari Swarm (green/black): A sect which emphasizes that death is an essential aspect of the life cycle, and which to that end encourages death and plague in order to foster regrowth. They are ruled by a trio of sibling gorgons called The Sisters of Stone Death (Lydya, Lexya and Ludmilla), but their rule is being fought over with the elvish shaman Savra.
The Selesnya Conclave (green/white): A quasi-monastic order whose members are zealously dedicated to keeping life in balance. The Conclave disapproves strongly of individuality, holding that the good of the whole is always more important than that of a single being. It is directed by The Chorus of the Conclave, a group of mostly ancient dryads. A preacher named Tolsimir Wolfblood is their champion, although he was absent from the Ravnica book.
House Dimir (blue/black): A shadowy guild that few of the common people of Ravnica are sure still exists. The other nine guilds know it does, and that it traffics in secrets, employing a network of spies and assassins to discover them and enforce their use in blackmail. It is led by the eldritch psionic vampire Szadek and the mysterious champion of the guild Circu the Dimir Lobotomist.

Design

Ravnica was conceived following the success of The Gathering). This set, released in 2000, emphasized interactions between the colors, and it was one of Magic's most popular releases ever. Magic's lead designer, Mark Rosewater, wanted to expand on the multicolor theme in a new way. Therefore, the design of Ravnica is based around the four guilds above, including cards in which those pairs of colors work in concert.

Ravnica is functionally different from Invasion block due to the interaction of the multi-colored theme. In Invasion block, for example, the first two sets (Invasion and The Gathering)) centered around friendly colors and the harmony they create when put together. The last set, Apocalypse emphasized enemy colors and areas where the colors contrast and possibly create powerful effects. However, the Ravnica block will only feature a limited number of color combinations (some friendly, some enemy) in every set based on what guilds are present. This in contrast to the player based urban legend that sets 'decrease in power' as each block continues. This trend is noticeable in many blocks and understandable from a marketing point of view. Tempest's last set, The Gathering), was the only set in that block not to feature the fan favorite Sliver creature type. Urza's Destiny was severely cut in power after the Combo Winter tournament season of Urza's Saga and Legacy. Mercadian Masques is by far the strongest set in its block, with Prophecy's only famous contributions to the set a few additional rebels and its high casting sorcery cycle. Onslaught's last set Scourge added few new cards to the already dominating Goblins decks and the Mono white or Blue White control popular in that set. Fifth Dawn saw a drop in power compared to the innovativness of Mirrodin and the fast paced modular ability or Skullclamp in Darksteel. Also Fifth Dawn is the only set in that block not to have any cards banned or restricted in any sanctioned format.

The only major and uncontested exceptions to this rule are Alliances and Apocalypse. This assumes that you consider Alliances under its old auspice as the final set in the Ice Age block (which will later move to the middle set with the release of Coldsnap later in 2006). Apocalypse was a fan favorite for creating enemy color combinations, which spawned a complete rethinking of what makes a good two color deck. This and the fact that Planeshift was particularly weak in its card selection as can be seen in its lack of tournament cards used and casual play use.

As far as sales and promotions go, it is best to 'put your best foot forward' to get players attached to the set to continue buying each expansion. If a weak set leads off, it is very hard to invigorate sales until a new themed block is released. Ravnica more or less circumvents this problem by placing individual color combinations in each block, and instead of releasing them all at once, spreading out over three sets.

Mechanics

Hybrid cards ("Guild mana"): For the first time in Magic's history, entirely new mana symbols appear. Each symbol is a circle halved diagonally, in which the top left half is one color and the bottom right half another. A smaller version of the color's icon (sun for white, skull for black, etc.) appears in the corresponding half. These mana symbols mean that mana of either color may be used to pay it; for example, a spell whose mana cost is two of the green/white symbols may be played using two green mana, two white mana, or one green and one white. The cards with these mana symbols have a colored border that fades from left to right, out of one color and into the other. These symbols each correspond to one of the guilds, and a large version of the guild's sigil underlies the text box of the card.

Each two-color combination is represented in the world of Ravnica by a guild -- an organized association of people with common beliefs. Four of these guilds appear in this set and the remaining six will appear later in the Ravnica block.

The appearance of a guild symbol in the background of a card's text box identifies that card's guild affiliation. For example, the symbol of the green-white Selesnya guild appears on green-white cards, cards with the convoke mechanic, lands that produce green and white mana, and so on. The guild symbols have no effect on game play.

Radiance (red/white): Radiance is an ability word that appears on spells and abilities that affect every creature that shares a color with the target creature. When played on multi-colored cards, the effect spreads to both colors.
Convoke (green/white): A player playing a spell with Convoke may tap some of his or her creatures to pay part or all of the mana cost. Each creature tapped reduces the cost by one mana of that creature's color, or by one colorless mana. Selesnya takes advantage of Convoke by playing cards that create Saproling creature tokens.
Dredge (black/green): Cards with dredge may be returned from the graveyard to their owner's hand, provided that player opts to skip drawing a card and instead puts a number of cards from the top of his or her library into the graveyard.
Transmute (blue/black): For three mana, a card with Transmute that's in a player's hand may be discarded. Doing this allows the player to find a card with the same converted mana cost from that player's library and put it into his or her hand.

In addition, several spells of the set, such as Boros-Fury Shield, Dryad’s Caress, Vigor Mortis, and Induce Paronoia have an enhanced effect if a particular color of mana is spent to play it. This theme continues with creatures in Guildpact.

Interesting Cards (By Guild)

House Dimir

Circu, Dimir Lobotomist is the first card to target libraries (the rules were changed to allow this).
Szadek, Lord of Secrets mills cards instead of dealing combat damage, growing stronger vampirically in the process.
Dimir Doppelganger is the first new shapeshifter printed that actually copies creatures since the Gathering) in 1998.
Glimpse the Unthinkable is a powerful and cheap spell that mills (places in the graveyard) the top 10 cards of any player's library for just 2 mana.

Selesnya Conclave

Glare of Subdual was used in combination with Vitu-Ghazi as part of the aggro control "Ghazi-Glare" decks that dominated standard between the release of Ravnica and Guildpact.
Autochthon Wurm has the highest toughness in Magic other than BFM. It has a toughness of 14. It is also the most expensive creature other than BFM and Draco---it has a mana cost of 10 colorless mana, 3 green mana and 2 white mana. The most extreme example of the possibilities of the Convoke mechanic.
Chord of Calling Another potent use of the Convoke mechanic, capable of summoning a gigantic creature if enough are already in play.
Watchwolf is a 3/3 "vanilla" Wolf creature for one green and one white mana, an extremely efficient cost-to-power/toughness ratio. This creature was intended to show that simple multicolored creatures with no abilities could be interesting to play.
Loxodon Hierarch - A solid and efficient combatant for its mana cost, that gives you 4 life when it comes into play, and that also has the power to "regenerate" all of its owner's creatures at the cost of its own life.
Chorus of the Conclave - The guildmaster of the Conclave, it is not very powerful alone, but with an army of creatures, it can make creatures with convoke gigantic.
Tolsimir Wolfblood, the Selesnya champion who boosts green and white creatures you control. He can also summon his own ride (Voja) to play.

The Golgari Swarm

Savra, Queen of the Golgari has two complementary triggered abilities; both trigger on sacrifice, one of green creatures, and the other of black creatures. Despite this, Savra has no ability allowing the sacrifice of creatures.
Darkblast gives any creature -1/-1 until end of turn, and can remove creatures of slightly larger sizes if one uses the "Dredge" ability to replace one's draws. It is the only instant with Dredge.
Putrefy is a simple and elegant utility spell that can destroy either a creature or an artifact. It is sought-after by both casual and tournament players.
Golgari Brownscale is the only card to have an effect that triggers on returning from the graveyard to the hand; it also has Dredge to facilitate this reliably.
Life from the Loam is a seemingly innocuous Dredge card that has been embraced by tournament players in multiple formats; in combination with powerful lands and graveyard control, it can become a disruption-resistant card-advantage engine.
Vulturous Zombie is a creature that grows larger as more cards go into opponents' graveyards from anywhere--a lot of synergy arises between this card and milling, discard, or destroying opponents' creatures.
Stinkweed Imp has the second-highest Dredge cost of any card, at 5. Many players have exploited this high number to dump large amounts of cards into their graveyard, often using the graveyard mechanics from the Odyssey block and cards like Ichorid and Psychatog to take advantage of the mechanic. Affectionately named Stinky by players, it is still used in some decks in Extended.
Golgari Grave-Troll is Stinkweed's partner in crime, with Dredge 6, which is the highest dredge count. A potentially huge creature with power and toughness equal to the number of creatures in your graveyard when it comes into play.
Sisters of Stone Death The mistresses of the Golgari Swarm. By power alone they are decent as a 7/5 creature for 4BBGG. As a note of interest, their abilities form a chain: One, they can force a creature to block them; Two, if they combat a creature, they can remove that creature from the game; Three, they let you steal the creature they removed from game.

Boros Legion

Agrus Kos, Wojek Veteran A recreation of the character from the Ravnica storyline, Agrus Kos can increase the power and toughness rating of attacking red and white creatures when he attacks. Moreover, since Agrus Kos is a red and white creature, he can add two power and toughness to himself when he attacks, effectively making him a 5/5 creature.
Lightning Helix combines the classic "boon" cards Lightning Bolt and Healing Salve into a powerful and efficient removal spell.
Firemane Angel gives its caster a constant flow of life unless it can be removed from the game (a more difficult feat than merely killing it) and can be resurrected for a large amount of mana, making it popular with casual players and in control decks that abuse this card's synergy with Zur's Weirding.
Razia, Boros Archangel The leader of the Boros Guild, Razia can redistribute 3 damage points to player-controlled creatures to opponent-controlled creatures. Besides, it has flying, vigilance and haste, and being a 6/3 creature, it is one of the most powerful flying creatures in the expansion.

Other Interesting Cards

Overgrown Tomb, Watery Grave, Sacred Foundry and Temple Garden - These lands are generally considered to be the best multi-color lands printed since the Alpha dual lands, which were reprinted for the last time in Revised. (Compare Underground Sea to Watery Grave.) Their two-life cost to use on the first turn played is a minor inconvenience.
Dark Confidant - A card designed by and bearing the likeness of Magic Invitational Winner Bob Maher. An efficient creature in its own right, the one-sided card drawing engine with marginal drawback has made this a new favorite in Vintage.
Char - Based on a blue spell called Psionic Blast that was originally printed in Alpha, this card is designed to fit into a more thematically appropriate color than its predecessor.
Birds of Paradise - Formerly a staple card in core sets from Alpha to 8th Edition, Birds of Paradise were deemed too harmful to the game to remain in circulation indefinitely, and were thus relegated to Ravnica, where they provide an easy access to colored mana for any of the four green guilds.
The Hunted (Lammasu, Phantasm, Horror, Dragon, Troll) - A cycle of creatures which grant an opponent creature tokens if the Hunteds are played. To compensate this, the Hunteds are relatively cheap for their strength (for example, Hunted Horror has 7 power and 7 toughness plus trample for just 2 black mana, though it gives an opponent 2 3/3 creatures whirch are immune to black in 'return').

External links

Magic: The Gathering sets

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