Magic: The Gathering
Magical Thinking: Ravnica: City of Guilds
Welcome back to Magical Thinking, a look back at the cards and art of Magic: the Gathering, set by set, from the beginning. Today we begin Ravnica block with the release of the first set of this block, October 2005’s Ravnica, City of Guilds.
Set on Ravnica, a city so massive it covers an entire plane, Ravnica is home to ten guilds, each of which represents a combination of two of the five colors of Magic. The plane is celebrating 10,000 years of peace following the signing of the guildpact, a magical agreement which prevented open warfare among the guilds. But forces are beginning to stir which may bring an end to the peace.
Since we’re talking about ten different factions, we obviously can’t fill the set with all ten, so each of the three sets focuses on a handful of guilds. This set starts us off by introducing us to the Boros Legion (White/Red): The police force and army of Ravnica, House Dimir (Blue/Black): The mysterious spymasters who no one actually knows exist at this point in the story, the Selesnya Conclave (White/Green): Peaceful Hippie commune or creepy brainwashing cult? You make the call (Hint it’s pretty much both), and the Golgari Swarm (Black/Green): basically cross Harvest moon with Last of Us and you have a good idea what they are about.
So without further delay, let’s jump right in.
Archons are the White equivalent to MTG Specters (Who are pretty much the Nazgul) and are meant to represent the less pleasant, more authoritarian aspects of White. So I guess it makes sense that they make a debut where one of the major factions are the cops. I will say it’s a pretty powerful effect. If your opponent can’t deal with this they’re pretty much locked out of winning with attacking.
Convoke is the keyword of the Selesnya Conclave, and it’s the only one which came back for the third Ravnica set (Which is right before I started playing again). I really like convoke because it’s very flavorful. It exemplifies the Conclave’s theme of community and strength in numbers. It useful but not too powerful. Of all the guilds I’ve had the most fun playing Selesnya token decks.
I think we’re also hitting the turning point where creatures stop being terrible. A 1/2 flyer with Vigilance is pretty good. Oh, and don’t worry about the Orzhov. We meet them next week.
Aside from the guilds, this set also has a strong enchantment theme. So we got something like this, which is basically a better version of pacifism since it gives you health back too. It’s worth noting this was reprinted in core 2021, so it’s legal in standard right now. Go out and try it for yourself.
This is kind of like the opposite of Night on Bald Mountain from Fantasia. I should really watch that again. But yeah, half damage from all your opponent’s stuff is pretty good, especially since it makes killing these ghosts much harder.
And here we have the Boros keyword Radiance, where not only does a card do a thing, but it does it to every other card sharing a color with that card. A pretty devastating effect in a set which is all about double color decks.
Actually this effect is pretty bad. Not only does it not mesh with Boros, but it’s just not a good mechanic, sitting as a 9 on the Storm Scale. So yeah, it was never used again.
Hey, it’s the Loxodon! Haven’t seen them since I think Mirrodin. Here’s what they look like without all that metal, I guess. Also, make sure you have all your papers ready to get past this guy, because he never forgets.
And of course we have cards of one color which talk about another color. A 1/1 Saproling may not seem like much, but don’t forget about Convoke. Those little guys add up…
Might wanna try taking those arrows out before you start there, buddy. But hey, at least none of them are in his knee. Then he’d be in trouble.
I actually got a chance to play with this card thanks to Jump/Start, which features these bad boys in their Mill half-decks. They are loads of fun, but I’m a huge Mill fan.
And here we have Dimir’s keyword. Basically any card with transmute can tutor for cards with the same mana cost. This is another 9 on the Storm Scale, which won’t be returning, apparently for making games too samey according to the Wiki. I’ll take their word for it.
This is basically the Invasion of the Body Snatchers of Magic. Don’t put your creatures to sleep or you’ll lose them forever (and by sleep I mean tap them, which we’re interpreting as sleep for this card).
Yeah, we’re still getting landwalk cards in 2005. Apparently they continue to persist until Commander 2016. That’s quite a lifespan. Also love how the flavor text is trying to hype up this 1/1.
Apparently the Dimir grow them big. And when this guy shows up he brings friends. Why transmute though? How many 9 mana cards is a deck gonna have?
Oh my God, it’s a Mirage! I’m tellin’ y’all it’s SABOTAGE.
Sorry, I just had to. Also, I think transmute suits this one better because there are probably more 2 cost cards you can grab than 9 mana ones.
They found us out. ABANDON REALITY. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. GO GO GO!
House Dimir does not mess around.
Yeah, little known fact: The reason Tinkerbell was banished from Neverland is because she was selling nuclear secrets to the Russians. You can read about it in the declassified retelling of the life of form MI6 director Wendy Darling.
….I may have some fanfic to write about this later.
I like this. You can potentially mill an opponent out with it if you know their deck well enough, but you can’t just cheat and name a card that isn’t there to wipe their deck out.
Hey, the Vedalken! We haven’t seen them since Mirrodin either. The Ravnica Vedalken look way different than the Mirrodin ones. With only two arms and smaller heads, they look more human like. I prefer this look for them.
I like the flavor of this card, since it makes casting spells easier….for a price. And really, “for a price” may as well be Black’s motto at this point.
I really like the art here. Not only are skeletons cool, but the posh-looking clothing and glowing half skull makes them look like an art installation, which is what they probably are when they aren’t attacking intruders.
Ah, Dredge. Probably the most powerful mechanic introduced in this set. So powerful it’s a whopping 10 on the Storm Wcale. Capable of stuffing your graveyard with cards (Which, if you know Black and Green, is a good thing for them).
Out of four new mechanics, only one of them was balanced enough to keep around. Ah well, for the time it was here dredge made Golgari the deck to beat.
I just love the flavor text here. Like there’s no kill like overkill, and why kill five when you can kill six. And yes, you need to have six legal targets for this spell to cast it. Although I think “Hex” is a tame name for a spell with this sort of destructive potential.
Oh no! Shrek has gone over to the dark side. He’s taking you to where he buried Donkey.
I like this card because it’s basically a recursive bomb. It blows up everything with up to 3 converted mana (including itself) then comes back for more unless you put more counters on it (which, granted, is something Green can easily do).
It’s Batman’s notorious Japanese enemy: Lord Dead Man (Yes, this is a real character. Look them up).
Hey, another dredge creature. Apparently this was one of the popular ones too.
This one is worth it just for that top notch pun. I mean, you can’t just let jokes like that rot on the vine. You gotta dig them out and clean them off.
I really like this one because it basically makes you a mad bomber holding your opponent hostage; they better watch themselves or you’ll blow up the whole board and every unprepared creature on it. This is some good flavor right here.
……Oh, I’m sorry. I was having Hearthstone Blackrock Mountain flashbacks. Grim Patrons, Grim Patrons everywhere.
Yeah, even the so-called chivalrous Boros Legion isn’t above using coercion to get soldiers to fight for their cause. Of course most of the guilds are awful, except the Golgari I guess.
Hey, remember these guys from Urza block? Well we’re back. And the Ravnica Goblins have the classic green skin and big eyes of Goblins of other planes. We’re going back to Goblin basics!
I feel like I make too many political jokes sometimes, but come on. Look at this card! How can I not make a QAnon crack or something when I see a card like this?
I think this is the first card I’ve seen that has reverse protection, where the color has protection from him.
This implies there are Sabertooth house cats as well.
Remember to spay and neuter your giant hell beasts. It’s for the good of the pet community.
So basically Ravnica is the late stage capitalism plane. It would be funny if it weren’t what we were living in right now.
Oh hey, the Viashino. Haven’t seen them in a good long while. I think it was back in Weatherlight saga. He just looks happy to be here, I’m not gonna lie. He just wants to do his best and maybe cut someone in half.
Yeah, I think Red should have one of these big random “Eff the world” cards each block. There’s nothing better than Red’s tendency to upend the status quo, right?
Hey, here’s a classic card from the days of Alpha. And in a set that encourages dual color decks, it’s gonna be indispensable for any green deck.
See, what did I tell you? Lots of ways to put counters on things. Lots of ways to make tokens. That’s what Green is all about.
Hey! Another old-schooler returns, this time all the way from The Dark. I love modern re-imaginings of older cards. Keep this up please.
And with this bad boy you start to see why Dredge was so overpowered. This guy is still banned in modern and restricted in vintage because you can pretty much use him to dredge up a huge graveryard and make him a titan.
Here we have one of the hunted cards, which gives you a powerful creature for cheap, but your opponent gets some tokens that can counter it in return. I think this might be the best one since by the time it’s ready to attack you should have mana free to regenerate him.
See, I warned you about the Selesnya. They got secret police and everything. I just don’t trust those guys. They’re like the Borg with better press.
Man, there aren’t enough Citronella candles on Earth to deal with this mess. That’s why you clean up after yourself when you eat outside.
This is why Convoke rocks. You start with a bunch of little stuff, then suddenly you’re dropping big guys like this left and right. It’s great. Of course, the best is still to come in regards to convoke, but more on that later.
I really like the flavor here of it giving up its quills as spears to its allies. Now I just imagine this Elf carrying like twenty spears under each arm and then goes off like “Well, time to kill Emrakul.” and then they do it.
It wouldn’t be a set about dual colors without the fabled gold cards. We’ve certainly come a long way from the old days because now the color synergies actually, you know, make sense, which is always good.
Again, I like the flavor here. Circu is literally erasing parts of your opponent’s brain with each spell. And even if it’s one card, they can potentially screw up your entire deck strategy with a well-placed exile.
Hey, remember this card from The Dark? Well it’s back, and it looks like they got a protective covering for that heart. About time too. Wou can’t leave those to float around for too long.
Once again, I love the flavor here. The thing I love about shapeshifters in Magic is all the different ways they are realized; some better than others, but this one is on point.
Normally I would say that having Angels on their side would automatically make Boros the good guys. Then again these are Magic: the Gathering Angels, and between Radiant and Akroma angels in Magic don’t exactly have the best track record, do they?
So is it a wood elemental, a rock elemental, or both? Always hard to tell. I think it needs so many people to convoke it because it needs help working doors with those big arm gems there.
And here we have a sample of Ravnica vampires. We’ll see that they have more conventional vampires later on, but here we have the Moroii, the creepy youth-draining vampires of the Dimir. Quite the charmers, aren’t they?
Behold, the secret final boss of Plants vs. Zombies. Also, I love the idea of combining Hydra with weeds. Neither one of them is great, but together they are a disaster (Just like White and Green apparently).
I know her ability is probably meant to be heroic, but come on. She’s never going to use it to protect herself, with that three health? No, she’s diverting it anywhere else. Probably right back at an opponent creature. That’s heroic, right? Like I always thought the Boros were pretty okay but these cards got me wondering.
So target creature gets +1/+1 till end of turn then? I wish they’d be more clear about that.
Also: SENZU BEAN!
So how this works is they A) Lure victims in, B) turn the victims to stone, and then C) Reanimate the statues to fight for them. That sound about right to everyone?
Angry dooting intensifies.
Alright Boros Legion, this earned back some points with me. Keep it up.
Pretty sure most people would consider that a dog. But maybe that’s just semantics. In any case, this is the perfect demonstration of the power of dual colors: a 3/3 for the price of a Grizzly bear.
And now we move into another groundbreaking mechanic: Hybrid mana. Rather than being two different colors, you can pay for these cards with either form of mana listed. Also, we have the cycle of the guildmages, the basic footsoldiers of each guild, who usually have an ability based on each color of their guild.
I love all that wild stuff happening in the background and this big guy is just chilling out. Also, this is a pretty useful card for getting stuff back from your graveyard.
Privilege, just like in real life, can really ruin a person’s day if they aren’t on the receiving end of it. Told you I wasn’t a fan of the Conclave.
I think the idea here is that you get an extra draw each turn, but you can’t play cards during your opponent’s turn because you have no hand. Seems like a rather extreme drawback for one extra card a turn. But maybe some slower decks can make it work.
And of course we have the signet cycle, perfect for all your dual mana fixing needs.
You know what they say, those who make glass golems…. should probably pick a better vocation because really? Glass? What is wrong with you?
Somewhere in Ravnica there is a BDSM club that is suffering a tragic shortage of bondage gear. I hope whoever made this thing apologizes to them, and then to us, and then to everyone else in Ravnica.
Man, when the zombies are running for the door you know things are bad. I think this is the thing that got Jack Torrance in the book version of The Shining.
Of course, with a dual color set, we need new dual lands. Like this one here. It’s pretty bad from my perspective.
This one is better. Actually of all the different dual lands out there aside from the original, the shock lands are probably the most sought after, since they can easily be played untapped if you don’t mind the pain.
And with that our first glimpse at the city plane of Ravnica comes to an end. Tune in next time when we meet three more of the guilds of Ravnica: We’ll go wild with the Gruul clans, we’ll conduct SCIENCE with the Izzet League, and we’ll get into crippling debt to the Orzhov Syndicate. It’s Guildpact! It will be fun! Anyway, until then, remember to stay Magical.
