I really hope this thread doesn't dissolve into petty arguments. These are only opinions; not facts.
Please share your thoughts. What do you like about the new Ravnica set? What don't you like? What synergies do you see? What connections to the past do you like or dislike?
Here are my thoughts:
Overall (197 cards deep so far!): I really like it. One BIG I had w/ RTR, Gatecrash & Maze's End, was that a lot of the Legends had a 5+ casting cost. The meta was quite slow when those Legends were played. Here we see some of those legends w/ competitive/lesser costs, like Tajic and Emmara. I do not remember how much complaining there was on the high costs, but this time around the costs are much less.
I see a lot of potential w/ many of the cards, even the commons & uncommons. I also see a lot of cars that will enhance older decks of mine, such as Mnemonic Betrayal for my Eldrazi "Processors" deck that is Esper in colors.
I am also digging the new keywords Surveil and Jump-Start. Mentor is OK... kinda hot, kinda cold on it. It's situational. I do know that +1/+1 counter-matters decks, such as Proliferate decks will love it. Convoke has some new blood/ideas breathed into it. (side note: wondering why there is a returning mechanic and not something new? Was there an issue coming up w/ something new? Or is it tied-in flavor-wise to the story?
Now, what I don't like. Couldn't find much, but here it is: 1) Some of the costs for the multicolored cards are intense, making them tougher to play in a 3 colored deck (but then of course in a Limited environment, there is much color fixing w/ the shocklands, gates, lockets, and Chromatic Lantern. There are many cards that have a cost that is XXYY. This can be perceived as good AND bad, depending on the context you see it as. good? Good for Devotion and Chromatic. Bad? Bad for 3+ colored decks. A lot of fixing will need to go into decks to get that XXYY 4-drop out on turn 4. The guild colors are really being pushed here. I foresee dual colored decks taking up the meta in standard, especially over the next 6 months, over mono-colored and 3+ colors.
2) The split cards look amazing, but I feel there isn't much of a connection from one side to the other (as "fuse" really tied them in, but once again, to cast both sides of a Split card w/ Fuse, there was a lot of mana tied up that turn, hearkens back to the previous issue mentioned w/ RTR, high casting costs). I get the connection in the names there, same prefix or starting letters. All flavor, but little to no function (talking about split cards names alone).
That is really it for my issues/complaints, outside of the typical "good for limited..." debate a lot of cards bring up. As usual, there will be sub-dollar rares that work in limited and the kitchen table, but aren't competitive or Commander fodder.
So, what is your impression? What do you like? What do you dislike? Let’s all be civil and hear what we have to say.
You do not need to agree w/ another’s POV, just do not go out of your way to correct or debate. If something rubs you wrong (as an opinion), just ignore it. Now, on the other hand if someone blatantly says something inappropriate, report them. Sorry I need to state this, but I have seen too many posts go off topic or get shut down because the conversation spirals.
It looks cool, overall. I mostly play two color, so I'm glad that there's several different options that look open to me. The Selesnya cards are especially exciting, since I've been building a GW token deck.
Overall I like the set. However, as an izzet player I feel they really did a very poor job with jump start and izzet in general. Two of the izzet uncommons were reprints (goblin electromancer and wee dragnouts). Also, having two of the mythic rare and rare slots taken up by enchantments in a shard that likes spells is really a miss. Mostly though I am upset just how overcosted they made the jump start spells. Nearly all of them are larger costed spells that don't really lend themselves to working with the wizard tempo style. I really thought with prowess as a keyward and wizards being such a big draw recently they would have had a few efficiently costed jump start spells. They may have them at common or uncommon later. Risk Factor is interesting and I think correctly costed so there is hope. I always look foward to getting a new Ral Zarek planeswalker, but always hope they will cost it effectively to be played in modern. The new one is not even close and is overshadowed by Teferi. It's not a bad card, just not a great card.
With all of that said, it looks like maybe they chose for izzet to be a "dimir support" to combo with surveil. It looks like they wanted izzet to be more control based rather than tempo based this time. Possibly to work well in a Grixis style deck.
I am biased as an izzet player, but I think they overpowered dimir and golgari, did a good job with selesnya and boros, and kind of fumbled through izzet. Does anyone agree/disagree? I also must say I play nearly 100% modern so I typically evaluate cards on that level. I do think standard izzet will be a fun deck, but likely won't be competitive unless it splashes black.
Little disappointed by Golgari overall. Obviously, BG got one of the cards most likely to have high value in Assassin's Trophy. However, it seems like the Undergrowth mechanic could have been so much more. Compared to something like, say, Delirium, it just isn't that impressive.
Surveil looks like it's really, really well supported, so I supposed I'll console myself with the probability of a strong Sultai deck. I feel like Disdainful Stroke is going to be nice to have again as a sideboard option.
I really don't see a single jump-start card that makes me excited. I think quite literally every jump start card costs 1 too much. Quasiduplicate? Cackling counterpart. And that is the most efficient. Browbeat...I mean Risk Factor is for commander I guess - most of the time you can find someone that isn't willing to take 4 damage to help the other 2 players. Otherwise, it is just a lava spike and a lava axe that is split into 3cc, 3cc. Radical idea? I'd rather just play 2 cycle lands instead of casting idea and discarding a land later.
I rather think that mentor will have an impact, and Aurelia is being severely undervalued.
Surveil...yeah...we pretty much know how good that is.
Undergrowth - like mentor, I think undergrowth is getting a bad rap. Most undergrowth are competitively costed. I could potentially envision a standard deck if there are a couple more enablers. If there was redundancy to stitcher's supplier and glowspore shaman (imagine running 8 of each) - and a few decent surveil cards, even innocuous cards like golgari raiders are suddenly terrifying.
Convoke. Convoke is what it is. Everything about convoke is clunky and swingy. I cannot imagine more than a couple cards (*cough* venerated loxodon)with convoke having any meaningful constructed impact.
A few cards that I think are potentially good - and everything depends on what is left to be spoiled.
Renegade Steam-kin - this guy can be a 3/3 or 4/4 on turn 3 when you swing with it. AND it enables some rather insane turn 4 plays.
Liking the set a lot. As BGx player and planning to build a UB in modern, this set has a lot of new cards for testing. Also plenty of fun cards to add on my SCG cart.
Boros: It does what it's always trying to do - hit people in the face. I'm just glad that they seem to have more variety in Limited this time around, 'cuz Mentor is a fun Limited mechanic and there are some cardsthat seem more geared toward a more midrange-ish strategy. As for Constructed... meh, there are some pretty goodcards, but I doubt they'll make much of a splash when competing against Mono-Red or Green Stompy.
Golgari: Seems alright, even if a bit uninspired. They seem decent enough in Limited, but Undergrowth seems like a bit of a letdown in both Limited and Standard. They have some very powerful cards in bothLimited and Standard, so it's not like they are unplayable or anything, but they do seem a bit bland.
Selesnya: Honestly... I'm not too hot on Selesnya. Don't get me wrong, Convoke is super fun/powerful as a mechanic, and they do have some pretty sweetcards, but they also have some... prettyuninspiredcards. We also needed some pretty sweet stuff to take down the tyranny of Chainwhirler in Standard for the go-wide strategies to flourish and, in my opinion... Selesnya did not delivered. Easily my least favorite of the 5.
Dimir: By far, in my opinion, the most overrated Guild. Yes, Doom Whisperer is a house card (pun intended) and will see play in Standard. No, that doesn't makes Surveil a viable deck in Standard. Sinister Sabotage and Price of Fame are fine cards on their own, but honestly people are talking about Enhanced Surveillance or Dimir Spybug in Standard and, honestly, that is crazy talk. They do seem fun to play with and have some interesting brewing options, but I would hardly call them overpowered, and in Limited they seem pretty good, but too overreliant in synergy. Overall, in my opinion, they seem balanced and fun, and definitely got a few too many Mythics, but nothing more, nothing less.
Izzet: Jump-start seems alright-ish, and I wish they did a bit more with the mechanic, but overall I like the design they went with the guild this time around. They don't seem to have too many "bad Limited junk", and seem to beoverall greatall-rounderswith goodto great cards. I'm only a bit dissapointed on how many of those Limited cards are reprints tbh. As for Constructed, they havesome solid potential, but we'll have to wait and see if it there's enough to make it work.
Dimir got many of the fun toys and feels complete.
Boros unfortunately is boros and boros is about that windmill slamming.
Golgari felt lukewarm aside from a couple cards.
Izzet felt so underpowered.
Selsenya I am just like "that is it? Wheres the rest?"
This is an interesting thing I just noticed: only 1 version of each basic land will be in the main set. I think other variants of the lands will be in supplemental product for GRV, but when pack-cracking, you'll only get 1 of each land.
Outside of Arabian Nights, Legends, Antiquities, The Dark, Homelands and Alliances (all which had zero basic lands - except AN, which had the barely-printed Mountain), I do not think this has been done. 3 versions of each land has been the norm for quite some time.
I like Dimir, but that really shouldn't be surprising, as its the guild of this set with the most love and care put into it both mechanically and aesthetically.
Selsenya I wanted to root for, but it looks a bit weaker.
Izzet has promise, but what drags it down are overcosted jumpstart cards and spells like Beacon Bolt.
Boros has a lot of potenial and I would say is one of the more realized guilds of this set.
Golgari while aesthitically interesting, more of the voodoo Elf motif, the undergrowth mechanic doesn't seem that wild to me.
I was expecting some elfs to be printed that are actually good.
Undergrowth was a mechanic on MANY cards before they came out with an official word for it.
Best card in the entire set belongs to black: Mausoleum Secrets
There is SOOOO much you can do with an instant speed tutor that requires very little to have it online.
Unsurprisingly, Jump-Start tends to be over costed, slow, or some combination of the two. Why did they play it so safe with this mechanic? Why does it have 3-8 less card than EVERY other guild mechanic?
Ultimately, I'm not unhappy with the set because I think some of the Izzet cards are good (although Ionize REALLY should have been uncommon) but it would be hard to over state how disappointed I am in Jump-Start, and how disappointed I am that I knew it was going to turn out this way. It feels especially bad when you see that Dimir has it's keyword mechanic on 3 of it's 4 mythic rares (lol).
I was expecting some elfs to be printed that are actually good.
Undergrowth was a mechanic on MANY cards before they came out with an official word for it.
Best card in the entire set belongs to black: Mausoleum Secrets
There is SOOOO much you can do with an instant speed tutor that requires very little to have it online.
Would have liked some more edh or modern reprints placed in the set. Im guessing Ral Zarek does the heavy lifting. In hindsight, core19 looks pretty good with crucible and scapeshift
This is the first set in the longest time I can feel the effort in trying to push the set for Standard power-wise and that they've learnt their lesson with expansive manabases and decided to resort to prohibitive mana cost instead so they don't have to lower power levels. The mehcanical design decisions they took intrigued me enough to pay more attention to the set, but as a Vorthos returning to the plane the second time, the flavor is just stagnant and falls flat. What I felt was strongest back then (Izzet) still feel so much of the same that it actually feels boring. Likewise, the Dimir were over-shrouded in mystery the first two blocks that seeing a bit more about the guild makes the guild the most refreshing of them all (helps they got the same revitalization mechanically as well).
I would call the set a good set, since I feel like calling it mediocre really undermines the effort I could see put into the set when it comes to improvements (and makes me feel like an entitled hypocrite since I could see the effort), but I wouldn't call it excellent either because the same perception also sees obvious flaws the set doesn't solve (just scraping the surface, while no one would mind shocklands returning, we all know they're not the actual barrier to entry to the likes of Modern at this point of time and while no one will be upset and mid-priced staple lands will be tumbling down again and having an even harder time to re-spike this time round, it was comparatively less necessarily to to other lands in need of print... also, the gimmick of associating Ravnica with Shocks is overdue, especially when the shocks had generic land names to prevent such situations from being necessary, the logistics part of me screams at the waste of the card names if all they're ever going to reappear is on one plane after all.)
As for the Dimir being "strong", there's still a noticeable lack of finishers (one demon finishers do not make), but take note that Surveil is an extremely strong support mechanic for the Izzet and Golgari and with the manabase situation WotC demonstrated they're ready for, it's quite obvious that tri-colored decks are likely the meta going forward, in fact aggressively two-colored mana cards were probably created to not overpower the three-colored ones. Between Izzet and Golgari I would favor the later more. Both Jump-start and Undergrowth do seem under-utilized but I personally feel the later has way more flexibility than the former. Some part of me wonders if Thousand-Year Storm caused a (retroactive) weakening on Jump-Start cards, it is a card with the mechanic the Storm Scale is named after all. Also, Surveil + Undergrowth is sorta of discount/balanced Dredge in a twisted way.
As for other formats, one of the biggest splashes revolves around Assassin's Trophy and I already gave my opinion on that (basically it will be a staple, but it's not an absolute 4-of shoo-in because BGx only has so much space for removal and even a very good jack of all trades isn't a master of all trades and meta changes can threaten its position in the tight space for removal). My EDH reviews go under the EDH subsection instead, not on general review posts here. That about covers it for playability. In the past I had put up top (10) lists of cards, but I feel the intertwining of mechanics (especially for Limited/Standard) makes it a lot harder to define a lot of cards other than the obvious likes of Trophies and Demons, so I'm skipping that out.
Art-wise, I appreciate the increase in diversity in art styles in the set, but honestly nothing jumps out at me as amazing even with the slightly-better diversity. I tried to pick favorites and only ended with 5, so I'll think I'll rank them for fun. Not going to justify them, it's all subjective liking.
5) Bounty of Might
4) Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice
3) Artful Takedown
2) Notion Rain
1) Inspiring Unicorn
Flavor Text-wise, I mentioned before the Izzet jokes felt overused to me, so I personally didn't find them as interesting this return. I also felt that there was perhaps a tad too much saturation of funny flavor texts for something embroiled into the main "serious" storyline (honestly the first two blocks were self-contained enough for jokes to work better, Jace alone as a factor did not elevate RTR's generally isolated status). That's not to say I outright hated all of them, I enjoyed a few, but the their overall quantity felt overbearing. Not going to rank them, just gonna group them in vague-reason groups.
The bulk of the cards I enjoyed flavor text were subtle jabs at some real-world situations/behavior, they might not be accurate because of the world and Magic, but if you filter through those lenses (or twist them inversely) they're pretty solid jabs: Hunted Witness, Sworn Companions, Devious Cover-Up, Passwall Adept, Dimir Spybug and Unmoored Ego. Dimir really notched up the flavor here that it makes Vraska-Golgari feel like the edgy teenagers instead of Dimir.
The two funny honorable mentions belong to Experimental Frenzy and Generous Stray and I found them funnier because they also share the same relation to reality to some degree.
I appreciate the hints to the other five guilds, but like Dimir stood out here, I felt the Gruul references from Maniacal Rage and Street Riot made them stand out more. I wonder if this will continue to the next set proper.
The callback awards (cards which flavor text reminds me of older cards I liked) go to Izzet Guildgate (Niv-Mizzet text) that reminds me of Ponder and Watery Grave (Duskmantle, House of Shadow was the de-facto description of Dimir back then).
I only have 3 individual cards left and I actually think I like them enough to round them off as a top 3, so they get meatier reasons.
2) Omnispell Adept - Usually I have a completely self-biased card that makes the cut to either one of the top two (depending on whether I find something else to qualify as the top). This is my personal bias card because my Isperia EDH deck has a quote and this card essentially has the same description, just modified for a single entity instead of a deck.
1) Demotion - I like cards that summarize their planes succinctly (Spire of Industry was the Kaladesh representative and the best example I immediately recalled) and usually place those as my top flavor cards. This is the one card that describes the plane in essence (Yes, the guildless exist, but the plane in essence is still largely defined by the guilds).
That sums up my entire general review for the set. I haven't started on the EDH-specific one (which is completely subjective to my own suite of decks as a disclaimer), but I'll post it in the subsection when I eventually get around to doing it.
I like the mechanics, unlike basically every other ravinica set there isn't just one trash/confusing mechanic.
What I don't like the lack of support for certain strategies. Undergrowth doesn't have any powerful self mill cards to fuel it, you have to use the dimir surviel cards basically.
I am really mad that they killed my standard deck, I didn't ask for much just a 1 cmc wizard and not every card in Izzet being 3 mana. They print trash like beamsplitter mage when the pumps don't can trip or they don't target when all I needed was a stormchaser mage.
but take note that Surveil is an extremely strong support mechanic for the Izzet and Golgari
This statement would mean more if more jump-start cards seemed playable. Not to mention the two reprints with no new art, one of which got bumped up in rarity. I only mention the uncommon slot so heavily because I think it's where Wizards really dropped the ball; there are only 2 uncommon Jump-Start cards and 2 rares, meaning most of them are designed around limited (hellllooo Direct Current). As somebody who wanted to actually see more Jump-Start, I kind of find that disappointing. It just feels like there was a lot of wasted potential.
The set seems ok at first glance but I think some of the csrds are deceptively powerful.
Nothing really jumped out as a standard all-star except the new GB removal and maybe the toned down Rablemaster?
I honestly think Boros might have the best chances.... Tajic, Aurelia, Lyra, the three drop angel, etc....
I do have a problem with the guild mechanics being sparse in general or wasted on subpar cards.... From first glance we didn't get many playable cards that utilize those mechanics? But like I said, I think some will break out during the upcoming weeks....
As a Modern player, brewer, and tinkerer, I like this set quite a lot. It's got some of the most Modern-playable cards in a long time.
Assassin's Trophy is of course the best card--removal that hits dang near anything at instant speed for cheap with a mostly ignorable drawback. Its worst feel-bad moments probably involve killing mana dorks and 1/1 tokens. I predict it'll be a solid 4-of and a sideboard all-star.
But Assassin's Trophy is boring, and one of the most powerful cards for Modern is Mausoleum Secrets. It can be flaky as all get-out--you almost need to maindeck Slaughter Pact if you play this card, as you won't always have a creature in the yard. Heck, I've generally been so strapped for mana that I tend to tutor for Slaughter Pact even if I have a creature in the yard. And then you almost need to maindeck Street Wraith if you play this card because it's the best creature that cycles for cheap, and then you probably want to bump your cycler count up for more consistency. But it's very powerful in Death's Shadow decks and the fringe As Foretold-Living End. Tutoring for both threats and answers at instant speed is awesome.
I've mentioned efficiency and power, but the dangerously novel breaker of the colour pie is Discovery // Dispersal. Black has never had a filtering cantrip before to my knowledge, and Discovery is a quasi-Strategic Planning. Bob hates flipping this, but I've had success running this in black non-blue decks such as Mardu Midrange, Abzan Traverse the Ulvenwald, and Grishoalbrand Goryo's Vengeance.
And the ultimate in role compression is Knight of Autumn. A decent maindeck pick and a very versatile sideboard option, you get a GW Reclamation Sage that can gain you life against aggro or be a 4/3 instead.
These 4 stick out to me in particular, but the role player list for me includes Ionize (damaging opponents may finally make this 3-mana counterspell playable in a format where all the playable 3-mana counterspells are creatures), Creeping Chill (powerful Dredge payoff card with unreal reach and life gain in multiples), Mission Briefing (though losing Snapcaster Mage's body hurts, the card stacking will at least mitigate the loss), and Beacon Bolt (decent removal in UR, and it can be used twice to boot). Unmoored Ego is a powerful sideboard card against combo with a decent chance of devastating big mana decks by taking away their flagship lands just in time. Vraska, Golgari Queen feels rather like a Nahiri, the Harbinger who's better at killing creatures but worse at filtering cards and closing out games. I'll have to give kudos to Experimental Frenzy for being a deceptively powerful draw engine in testing (in RG Ponza, Affinity, and even RG Eldrazi). If it weren't for his 5 cmc, Ral, Izzet Viceroy would be solidly Modern-playable--he's like a UR Ob Nixilis Reignited who's slightly worse at killing creatures but has the better draw and ult.
Not when half my deck elf deck are mana dorks and the other half 2/2 Lords. I could just play a Nettle Sentinel on turn 1 and have the same attacker on turn 2... except with vigilance... Ezuri gives trample. Elves got nothing in a set that was supposed to help BG Elves. Golgari Raiders would have been a great card for elves had it been 3 mana.
They should have given the Boros Legion the Mechanic Soulbound or something similar. It is teamwork flavored and gives that old cop movie vibes of two cops working together to fight crime. Plus we could have explored an interesting mechanic.
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Please share your thoughts. What do you like about the new Ravnica set? What don't you like? What synergies do you see? What connections to the past do you like or dislike?
Here are my thoughts:
Overall (197 cards deep so far!): I really like it. One BIG I had w/ RTR, Gatecrash & Maze's End, was that a lot of the Legends had a 5+ casting cost. The meta was quite slow when those Legends were played. Here we see some of those legends w/ competitive/lesser costs, like Tajic and Emmara. I do not remember how much complaining there was on the high costs, but this time around the costs are much less.
I see a lot of potential w/ many of the cards, even the commons & uncommons. I also see a lot of cars that will enhance older decks of mine, such as Mnemonic Betrayal for my Eldrazi "Processors" deck that is Esper in colors.
I am also digging the new keywords Surveil and Jump-Start. Mentor is OK... kinda hot, kinda cold on it. It's situational. I do know that +1/+1 counter-matters decks, such as Proliferate decks will love it. Convoke has some new blood/ideas breathed into it. (side note: wondering why there is a returning mechanic and not something new? Was there an issue coming up w/ something new? Or is it tied-in flavor-wise to the story?
Now, what I don't like. Couldn't find much, but here it is:
1) Some of the costs for the multicolored cards are intense, making them tougher to play in a 3 colored deck (but then of course in a Limited environment, there is much color fixing w/ the shocklands, gates, lockets, and Chromatic Lantern. There are many cards that have a cost that is XXYY. This can be perceived as good AND bad, depending on the context you see it as. good? Good for Devotion and Chromatic. Bad? Bad for 3+ colored decks. A lot of fixing will need to go into decks to get that XXYY 4-drop out on turn 4. The guild colors are really being pushed here. I foresee dual colored decks taking up the meta in standard, especially over the next 6 months, over mono-colored and 3+ colors.
2) The split cards look amazing, but I feel there isn't much of a connection from one side to the other (as "fuse" really tied them in, but once again, to cast both sides of a Split card w/ Fuse, there was a lot of mana tied up that turn, hearkens back to the previous issue mentioned w/ RTR, high casting costs). I get the connection in the names there, same prefix or starting letters. All flavor, but little to no function (talking about split cards names alone).
That is really it for my issues/complaints, outside of the typical "good for limited..." debate a lot of cards bring up. As usual, there will be sub-dollar rares that work in limited and the kitchen table, but aren't competitive or Commander fodder.
So, what is your impression? What do you like? What do you dislike? Let’s all be civil and hear what we have to say.
You do not need to agree w/ another’s POV, just do not go out of your way to correct or debate. If something rubs you wrong (as an opinion), just ignore it. Now, on the other hand if someone blatantly says something inappropriate, report them. Sorry I need to state this, but I have seen too many posts go off topic or get shut down because the conversation spirals.
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With all of that said, it looks like maybe they chose for izzet to be a "dimir support" to combo with surveil. It looks like they wanted izzet to be more control based rather than tempo based this time. Possibly to work well in a Grixis style deck.
I am biased as an izzet player, but I think they overpowered dimir and golgari, did a good job with selesnya and boros, and kind of fumbled through izzet. Does anyone agree/disagree? I also must say I play nearly 100% modern so I typically evaluate cards on that level. I do think standard izzet will be a fun deck, but likely won't be competitive unless it splashes black.
Surveil looks like it's really, really well supported, so I supposed I'll console myself with the probability of a strong Sultai deck. I feel like Disdainful Stroke is going to be nice to have again as a sideboard option.
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I rather think that mentor will have an impact, and Aurelia is being severely undervalued.
Surveil...yeah...we pretty much know how good that is.
Undergrowth - like mentor, I think undergrowth is getting a bad rap. Most undergrowth are competitively costed. I could potentially envision a standard deck if there are a couple more enablers. If there was redundancy to stitcher's supplier and glowspore shaman (imagine running 8 of each) - and a few decent surveil cards, even innocuous cards like golgari raiders are suddenly terrifying.
Convoke. Convoke is what it is. Everything about convoke is clunky and swingy. I cannot imagine more than a couple cards (*cough* venerated loxodon)with convoke having any meaningful constructed impact.
A few cards that I think are potentially good - and everything depends on what is left to be spoiled.
Renegade Steam-kin - this guy can be a 3/3 or 4/4 on turn 3 when you swing with it. AND it enables some rather insane turn 4 plays.
circuitous route - if explosive vegetation could impact standard, perhaps a better version has a place
I like Undergrowth as a mechanic and i have thought about making an Overgrowth / Surveil deck but the cards we have got so far, is just super boring.
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Boros: It does what it's always trying to do - hit people in the face. I'm just glad that they seem to have more variety in Limited this time around, 'cuz Mentor is a fun Limited mechanic and there are some cards that seem more geared toward a more midrange-ish strategy. As for Constructed... meh, there are some pretty good cards, but I doubt they'll make much of a splash when competing against Mono-Red or Green Stompy.
Golgari: Seems alright, even if a bit uninspired. They seem decent enough in Limited, but Undergrowth seems like a bit of a letdown in both Limited and Standard. They have some very powerful cards in both Limited and Standard, so it's not like they are unplayable or anything, but they do seem a bit bland.
Selesnya: Honestly... I'm not too hot on Selesnya. Don't get me wrong, Convoke is super fun/powerful as a mechanic, and they do have some pretty sweet cards, but they also have some... pretty uninspired cards. We also needed some pretty sweet stuff to take down the tyranny of Chainwhirler in Standard for the go-wide strategies to flourish and, in my opinion... Selesnya did not delivered. Easily my least favorite of the 5.
Dimir: By far, in my opinion, the most overrated Guild. Yes, Doom Whisperer is a house card (pun intended) and will see play in Standard. No, that doesn't makes Surveil a viable deck in Standard. Sinister Sabotage and Price of Fame are fine cards on their own, but honestly people are talking about Enhanced Surveillance or Dimir Spybug in Standard and, honestly, that is crazy talk. They do seem fun to play with and have some interesting brewing options, but I would hardly call them overpowered, and in Limited they seem pretty good, but too overreliant in synergy. Overall, in my opinion, they seem balanced and fun, and definitely got a few too many Mythics, but nothing more, nothing less.
Izzet: Jump-start seems alright-ish, and I wish they did a bit more with the mechanic, but overall I like the design they went with the guild this time around. They don't seem to have too many "bad Limited junk", and seem to be overall great all-rounders with good to great cards. I'm only a bit dissapointed on how many of those Limited cards are reprints tbh. As for Constructed, they have some solid potential, but we'll have to wait and see if it there's enough to make it work.
Boros unfortunately is boros and boros is about that windmill slamming.
Golgari felt lukewarm aside from a couple cards.
Izzet felt so underpowered.
Selsenya I am just like "that is it? Wheres the rest?"
Outside of Arabian Nights, Legends, Antiquities, The Dark, Homelands and Alliances (all which had zero basic lands - except AN, which had the barely-printed Mountain), I do not think this has been done. 3 versions of each land has been the norm for quite some time.
Selsenya I wanted to root for, but it looks a bit weaker.
Izzet has promise, but what drags it down are overcosted jumpstart cards and spells like Beacon Bolt.
Boros has a lot of potenial and I would say is one of the more realized guilds of this set.
Golgari while aesthitically interesting, more of the voodoo Elf motif, the undergrowth mechanic doesn't seem that wild to me.
The foil basics are very nice.
Undergrowth was a mechanic on MANY cards before they came out with an official word for it.
Best card in the entire set belongs to black: Mausoleum Secrets
There is SOOOO much you can do with an instant speed tutor that requires very little to have it online.
Ultimately, I'm not unhappy with the set because I think some of the Izzet cards are good (although Ionize REALLY should have been uncommon) but it would be hard to over state how disappointed I am in Jump-Start, and how disappointed I am that I knew it was going to turn out this way. It feels especially bad when you see that Dimir has it's keyword mechanic on 3 of it's 4 mythic rares (lol).
Not a fan of Pelt Collector?
I would call the set a good set, since I feel like calling it mediocre really undermines the effort I could see put into the set when it comes to improvements (and makes me feel like an entitled hypocrite since I could see the effort), but I wouldn't call it excellent either because the same perception also sees obvious flaws the set doesn't solve (just scraping the surface, while no one would mind shocklands returning, we all know they're not the actual barrier to entry to the likes of Modern at this point of time and while no one will be upset and mid-priced staple lands will be tumbling down again and having an even harder time to re-spike this time round, it was comparatively less necessarily to to other lands in need of print... also, the gimmick of associating Ravnica with Shocks is overdue, especially when the shocks had generic land names to prevent such situations from being necessary, the logistics part of me screams at the waste of the card names if all they're ever going to reappear is on one plane after all.)
As for the Dimir being "strong", there's still a noticeable lack of finishers (one demon finishers do not make), but take note that Surveil is an extremely strong support mechanic for the Izzet and Golgari and with the manabase situation WotC demonstrated they're ready for, it's quite obvious that tri-colored decks are likely the meta going forward, in fact aggressively two-colored mana cards were probably created to not overpower the three-colored ones. Between Izzet and Golgari I would favor the later more. Both Jump-start and Undergrowth do seem under-utilized but I personally feel the later has way more flexibility than the former. Some part of me wonders if Thousand-Year Storm caused a (retroactive) weakening on Jump-Start cards, it is a card with the mechanic the Storm Scale is named after all. Also, Surveil + Undergrowth is sorta of discount/balanced Dredge in a twisted way.
As for other formats, one of the biggest splashes revolves around Assassin's Trophy and I already gave my opinion on that (basically it will be a staple, but it's not an absolute 4-of shoo-in because BGx only has so much space for removal and even a very good jack of all trades isn't a master of all trades and meta changes can threaten its position in the tight space for removal). My EDH reviews go under the EDH subsection instead, not on general review posts here. That about covers it for playability. In the past I had put up top (10) lists of cards, but I feel the intertwining of mechanics (especially for Limited/Standard) makes it a lot harder to define a lot of cards other than the obvious likes of Trophies and Demons, so I'm skipping that out.
Art-wise, I appreciate the increase in diversity in art styles in the set, but honestly nothing jumps out at me as amazing even with the slightly-better diversity. I tried to pick favorites and only ended with 5, so I'll think I'll rank them for fun. Not going to justify them, it's all subjective liking.
5) Bounty of Might
4) Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice
3) Artful Takedown
2) Notion Rain
1) Inspiring Unicorn
Flavor Text-wise, I mentioned before the Izzet jokes felt overused to me, so I personally didn't find them as interesting this return. I also felt that there was perhaps a tad too much saturation of funny flavor texts for something embroiled into the main "serious" storyline (honestly the first two blocks were self-contained enough for jokes to work better, Jace alone as a factor did not elevate RTR's generally isolated status). That's not to say I outright hated all of them, I enjoyed a few, but the their overall quantity felt overbearing. Not going to rank them, just gonna group them in vague-reason groups.
The bulk of the cards I enjoyed flavor text were subtle jabs at some real-world situations/behavior, they might not be accurate because of the world and Magic, but if you filter through those lenses (or twist them inversely) they're pretty solid jabs: Hunted Witness, Sworn Companions, Devious Cover-Up, Passwall Adept, Dimir Spybug and Unmoored Ego. Dimir really notched up the flavor here that it makes Vraska-Golgari feel like the edgy teenagers instead of Dimir.
The two funny honorable mentions belong to Experimental Frenzy and Generous Stray and I found them funnier because they also share the same relation to reality to some degree.
I appreciate the hints to the other five guilds, but like Dimir stood out here, I felt the Gruul references from Maniacal Rage and Street Riot made them stand out more. I wonder if this will continue to the next set proper.
The callback awards (cards which flavor text reminds me of older cards I liked) go to Izzet Guildgate (Niv-Mizzet text) that reminds me of Ponder and Watery Grave (Duskmantle, House of Shadow was the de-facto description of Dimir back then).
I only have 3 individual cards left and I actually think I like them enough to round them off as a top 3, so they get meatier reasons.
3) Skyline Scout - Everyday life with Ravnicans.
2) Omnispell Adept - Usually I have a completely self-biased card that makes the cut to either one of the top two (depending on whether I find something else to qualify as the top). This is my personal bias card because my Isperia EDH deck has a quote and this card essentially has the same description, just modified for a single entity instead of a deck.
1) Demotion - I like cards that summarize their planes succinctly (Spire of Industry was the Kaladesh representative and the best example I immediately recalled) and usually place those as my top flavor cards. This is the one card that describes the plane in essence (Yes, the guildless exist, but the plane in essence is still largely defined by the guilds).
That sums up my entire general review for the set. I haven't started on the EDH-specific one (which is completely subjective to my own suite of decks as a disclaimer), but I'll post it in the subsection when I eventually get around to doing it.
EDIT: Fixed Link/Texts
What I don't like the lack of support for certain strategies. Undergrowth doesn't have any powerful self mill cards to fuel it, you have to use the dimir surviel cards basically.
I am really mad that they killed my standard deck, I didn't ask for much just a 1 cmc wizard and not every card in Izzet being 3 mana. They print trash like beamsplitter mage when the pumps don't can trip or they don't target when all I needed was a stormchaser mage.
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
This statement would mean more if more jump-start cards seemed playable. Not to mention the two reprints with no new art, one of which got bumped up in rarity. I only mention the uncommon slot so heavily because I think it's where Wizards really dropped the ball; there are only 2 uncommon Jump-Start cards and 2 rares, meaning most of them are designed around limited (hellllooo Direct Current). As somebody who wanted to actually see more Jump-Start, I kind of find that disappointing. It just feels like there was a lot of wasted potential.
Nothing really jumped out as a standard all-star except the new GB removal and maybe the toned down Rablemaster?
I honestly think Boros might have the best chances.... Tajic, Aurelia, Lyra, the three drop angel, etc....
I do have a problem with the guild mechanics being sparse in general or wasted on subpar cards.... From first glance we didn't get many playable cards that utilize those mechanics? But like I said, I think some will break out during the upcoming weeks....
Assassin's Trophy is of course the best card--removal that hits dang near anything at instant speed for cheap with a mostly ignorable drawback. Its worst feel-bad moments probably involve killing mana dorks and 1/1 tokens. I predict it'll be a solid 4-of and a sideboard all-star.
But Assassin's Trophy is boring, and one of the most powerful cards for Modern is Mausoleum Secrets. It can be flaky as all get-out--you almost need to maindeck Slaughter Pact if you play this card, as you won't always have a creature in the yard. Heck, I've generally been so strapped for mana that I tend to tutor for Slaughter Pact even if I have a creature in the yard. And then you almost need to maindeck Street Wraith if you play this card because it's the best creature that cycles for cheap, and then you probably want to bump your cycler count up for more consistency. But it's very powerful in Death's Shadow decks and the fringe As Foretold-Living End. Tutoring for both threats and answers at instant speed is awesome.
I've mentioned efficiency and power, but the dangerously novel breaker of the colour pie is Discovery // Dispersal. Black has never had a filtering cantrip before to my knowledge, and Discovery is a quasi-Strategic Planning. Bob hates flipping this, but I've had success running this in black non-blue decks such as Mardu Midrange, Abzan Traverse the Ulvenwald, and Grishoalbrand Goryo's Vengeance.
And the ultimate in role compression is Knight of Autumn. A decent maindeck pick and a very versatile sideboard option, you get a GW Reclamation Sage that can gain you life against aggro or be a 4/3 instead.
These 4 stick out to me in particular, but the role player list for me includes Ionize (damaging opponents may finally make this 3-mana counterspell playable in a format where all the playable 3-mana counterspells are creatures), Creeping Chill (powerful Dredge payoff card with unreal reach and life gain in multiples), Mission Briefing (though losing Snapcaster Mage's body hurts, the card stacking will at least mitigate the loss), and Beacon Bolt (decent removal in UR, and it can be used twice to boot). Unmoored Ego is a powerful sideboard card against combo with a decent chance of devastating big mana decks by taking away their flagship lands just in time. Vraska, Golgari Queen feels rather like a Nahiri, the Harbinger who's better at killing creatures but worse at filtering cards and closing out games. I'll have to give kudos to Experimental Frenzy for being a deceptively powerful draw engine in testing (in RG Ponza, Affinity, and even RG Eldrazi). If it weren't for his 5 cmc, Ral, Izzet Viceroy would be solidly Modern-playable--he's like a UR Ob Nixilis Reignited who's slightly worse at killing creatures but has the better draw and ult.
Golgari Raiders would have been a great card for elves had it been 3 mana.
We got for standard:
We got for modern: