So since Gatecrash will be drafted together with RTR after the release of Dragon's Maze, I was thinking about the cards that Wizards had to put into RTR to synergize with the guilds from Gatecrash. Obviously there will be quite a few of them, but my thoughts kept returning to certain uncommons from RTR.
Uncommon is the perfect area to put cards that go particularly well with GTC cards as opposed to RTR, since they won't show up often enough in triple-RTR draft to mess up the internal synergies there, but they'll show up just often enough in DGR draft to be helpful then. My theory is that there are 10 uncommon cards (1 for each of the 2 guilds in GTC associated with one of the 5 colors) that are specifically meant to be awesome with cards from those other guilds.
I think this makes additional sense because there are numerous uncommons that just don't seem to fit well with the cards in this set, and are drafted later than they should be--they're not necessarily bad cards in a vacuum, there just aren't good ways to take advantage of them. Below are my thoughts for what the 10 cards are. Feel free to chime in.
Blue Simic--Aquus Steed. The flavor is pretty Simic, and the ability just isn't very powerful in triple RTR.
Green Simic--Oak Street Innkeeper. Not really Simic flavorwise, but it definitely just doesn't feel like it fits in RTR. This could point to the Simic mechanic somehow making it easier to tap your own creatures.
Green Gruul--Savage Surge? There aren't a whole lot of green uncommons that just don't fit this set, but this card just doesn't seem as powerful as it might be in other sets, and could have easily been made a common if Wizards had wanted it to be.
Red Gruul--Minotaur Aggressor? Likewise, there aren't a lot of red uncommons that fit here either. Neither the Izzet nor the Rakdos deck really want this card in RTR draft though; it's too expensive for not enough gain for them specifically, and it's not an instant or sorcery for Izzet. Plus he's pretty Gruul flavorwise, and could fit well in a random RG beats deck. I don't know what this points toward for the Gruul mechanic though.
Red Boros--Goblin Rally. Aside from being awesome with Teleportal, there aren't many reasons for red to make many tiny tokens in this set. I'm sure Boros can think of some.
White Boros--Bazaar Krovod. It's just a strange card, that doesn't "fit" with anything from this set. The ability isn't bad though. Someone in another thread was speculating that the Boros ability could be sort of a reverse Battle Cry, where instead of every other creature getting a +1/+0 bonus when a certain creature attacks, that individual creature gets a +1/+0 bonus from all other attacking creatures. Sort of like if Exalted and Battle Cry got together and had a baby. I think this is a really good theory for multiple reasons, and it works well with both of these uncommon "plants".
White Orzhov--Soul Tithe? Sphere of Safety? I wouldn't be surprised if Orzhov was pretty enchantment heavy, and those would both do a lot of work in some sort of enchantment themed deck. Sphere of Safety might be a better guess, since Soul Tithe is probably too good in RTR limited to be just a plant.
Black Orzhov--Shrieking Affliction. The flavor is pretty Orzhov, it's an enchantment, and it focuses on discard which the Orzhov are pretty good at. It also doesn't fit in an RTR deck. As with Gruul, I'm not sure what this says about the guild mechanic specifically.
Black Dimir--Dark Revenant. This is just a fairly bad card in RTR, but it's certainly not an impossible card to make work. I'm sure it can be made to work with whatever the Dimir mechanic is.
Blue Dimir--Psychic Spiral. While there can be Psychic Spiral decks in RTR limited, it doesn't seem like they'd usually be very good, nor would they need to be guild aligned. This fits well in Dimir, and points to maybe some Dimir self-mill. Dimir was probably going to be a mill-focused guild anyway.
You can also look at bit broader than define a theory of 2 uncommons and look at the general overview of all the mono coloured commons/uncommons in the set. Here we can see that black has an above average discard theme in common and uncommon, which could work really well if Dimir likes discarding, or Orzhov is going to prey the enemy graveyard (which would be flavourful). The two current guilds dealing in black dont really care about discarding spells as they are both so creature based, but in GTC this may change.
Well remembered. I think Mind Rot is a specially is suspicious case because that's a traditional core set card but they choose to put it in RTR so it make part of the RTR limited. For me it's major hint Dimir or Orzhov will have discard theme.
Well remembered. I think Mind Rot is a specially is suspicious case because that's a traditional core set card but they choose to put it in RTR so it make part of the RTR limited. For me it's major hint Dimir or Orzhov will have discard theme.
And not just that Mind Rot is reprinted in the set, but that it's got a new art that is so incredibly Orzhov.
I think that they are trying to get some guildless into the sets as well, so the minotaur for exampel could very well be just that, like the flavour text suggests. But your post was a nice read still.
I think that list there is good and you've got good logic there.
Here's a few I think "fit" mostly with other guilds:
White: Precinct Captain I think it's hard to say if he's Azorius or Boros because it could be either one, but I think this guy has quite a Boros flavor to him.
Good call on Sphere and Soul Tithe, especially Soul Tithe.
Blue:
Conjured Currency Seems to fit a Dimir flavor to me. Stealing stuff is certainly their thing.
I think that list there is good and you've got good logic there.
Here's a few I think "fit" mostly with other guilds:
White: Precinct Captain I think it's hard to say if he's Azorius or Boros because it could be either one, but I think this guy has quite a Boros flavor to him.
Precinct is a quite military term, and there was a "Boros Precinct" wallpaper in the Art Fight on Facebook.
Good call on Sphere and Soul Tithe, especially Soul Tithe.
Soul Tithe art was listed as Orzhov in the Art Fight application. It is not as much a guess as a certainty.
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Conjured Currency Seems to fit a Dimir flavor to me. Stealing stuff is certainly their thing.
Plus, if you look closely, there is Dimir symbol on the conjured coins....
Definitely Psychic Spiral as you noted for Dimir.
Everything on the card scream Azorius - the art, the runes, the flavor text. Plus, I do not quite think that Dimir will have a mill subtheme this time around.
I can't help feel like what you're finding is actually just good set design.
With any set with factions you are going to have those creatures who ride the line between two or more factions. Ethercaste Knight being an excellent example from Alara. He has the Bant ability but is also an artifact creature which could earn him a spot in an Esper deck. Going back to the original Ravnica block there are cards like Courier Hawk which by it's flavor text is an Orzhov creature but it could also have found a spot in an Azorious deck as a blocker or in a Boros deck as an additional flyer.
Bellows Lizard at first glance has no guild affiliation but he could work in Boros, Grull, or Rakdos as an early threat blocker or depending on what kind of green pump we see later in the block could be a hard attacker for those finishing few points.
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You can also look at bit broader than define a theory of 2 uncommons and look at the general overview of all the mono coloured commons/uncommons in the set. Here we can see that black has an above average discard theme in common and uncommon, which could work really well if Dimir likes discarding, or Orzhov is going to prey the enemy graveyard (which would be flavourful). The two current guilds dealing in black dont really care about discarding spells as they are both so creature based, but in GTC this may change.
Definitely true. There are surely lots of cards in RTR that will work well with the guilds in GTC, my theory about the 2 uncommons just centers on some of those cards hinting a little more directly at the guild theme or guild mechanic.
I think that they are trying to get some guildless into the sets as well, so the minotaur for exampel could very well be just that, like the flavour text suggests.
True. I didn't really look at the flavor text for the minotaur before suggesting it. I still don't really see another potentially Gruul-related mono-red uncommon though.
Everything on the card scream Azorius - the art, the runes, the flavor text. Plus, I do not quite think that Dimir will have a mill subtheme this time around.
Hmm, the flavor on Psychic Spiral is very Azorius, you're right. That's another one that I didn't really look at. Maybe Faerie Imposter? The flavor is definitely Dimir, and it could point to some sort of ETB theme in Dimir, especially with Dark Revenant being the black Dimir uncommon.
I can't help feel like what you're finding is actually just good set design.
With any set with factions you are going to have those creatures who ride the line between two or more factions. Ethercaste Knight being an excellent example from Alara. He has the Bant ability but is also an artifact creature which could earn him a spot in an Esper deck. Going back to the original Ravnica block there are cards like Courier Hawk which by it's flavor text is an Orzhov creature but it could also have found a spot in an Azorious deck as a blocker or in a Boros deck as an additional flyer.
Bellows Lizard at first glance has no guild affiliation but he could work in Boros, Grull, or Rakdos as an early threat blocker or depending on what kind of green pump we see later in the block could be a hard attacker for those finishing few points.
Oh, there's no doubt that it's good set design. It's very smart. The way this block was designed draftwise, though, must mean that there are cards in RTR that work specifically well with the guilds in GTC, otherwise it would be hard for drafters of those guilds to get cards from the final pack. Drafters in the RTR guilds would otherwise have an advantage, since they'd know they'd get good cards in the last pack while the GTC guilds would have to make do with whatever they could make work.
Shrieking Affliction seems to be a Orzhov card. The little devils in the art are actually gargoyles and gargoyles is one of the races shared by white and black (one race commonly associated to the Orzhov). Also, the little gargoyles vest looks really Orzhovian (golden, black, weird masks).
Shrieking Affliction is also a discard theme card. Between this and Mind Rot, i put my coins on Orzhov getting a discard theme or sub-theme.
I think it was said a while ago that there were common plants for the Dimir mechanic. My guess it's probably Crosstown Courier. If I had to guess there's got to be some kind of Beast tribal sub-theme that will pop up in the block considering how many Beasts appear at common.
I'm calling Dimir using "Destroy the Evidence" secondary effect-on-a-stick as their mechanic. Mill til you get to a land, interesting against Gruul's predicted "discard lands to deal damage" mechanic.
Precinct Captain fits pretty well into the Azorius's theme of the laws and the people that enforce those laws rather then the political aspects in the prior time. He does also fit the whole fight as a team deal with Boros though.
Maybe he is an indication of some themes that could tie the two blocks together? Boros matches up with Azorius, Gruul and Golgari with big creatures, Selesyna and Simic in multiping. Real issue is trying to think up an reasonable ties in the last two pair though.
Like Ash Zealot, Precinct Captain is there for Constructed. In a multicolored set, it's good to reward player for using cards with strong mono color costs or else people will all jump in 3~4 color decks way too quickly. I don't think he hints in any GTC theme strongly.
Quantity Over Quality tokens - Not sure about this. Maybe this is just some tool for Krenko decks in constructed. Otherwise i think goblin tokens is way too random to be a one-of spell. Red is not even the kind of color that do that, it must have a special reason. Could hint into Boros or Gruul mechanic (more likely Boros because of Precinct Captain and Phantom General). Goblin Rally Survey the Wreckage
Tap Abilities - Another one i'm not so sure about. Those cards are way to weak in RTR and they are clear limited cards. I think they will have synergies that will be further explored and will be picked if you already got the strong cards of such synergies (RTR will be the last picked booster!). Bazaar Krozod Aquus Steed Oak Street Innkeeper Savage Surge
I was thinking that there might be more red/black/green land into graveyard play.
I was looking at Deathhead shaman in context of some of the land destruction cards and they almost seem playable. Deathhead in to Packrat in to mindrot into destroy land seems incredible oppressive.
Maybe he is an indication of some themes that could tie the two blocks together? Boros matches up with Azorius, Gruul and Golgari with big creatures, Selesyna and Simic in multiping. Real issue is trying to think up an reasonable ties in the last two pair though.
Well, Dimir could likely have a focus on spells like Izzet. Rakdos and Orzhov are pretty damn different though. If anything, Orzhov has more in common with Azorius than Rakdos, at least in terms of overall gameplan. Another card I just thought of that fits Orzhov fairly well is Perilous Shadow. Pretty decent control card.
Having thought about Dark Revenant and Faerie Imposter a little bit, as well as the mill cards, what if the Dimir mechanic combines the two--milling and ETB effects? Something like "Keyword X--When this or another creature enters the battlefield, target player (or target opponent depending on how they wanted it to work) puts the top X cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard." It makes Faerie Imposter awesome, and Dark Revenant at least relevant. It also makes one of the usual drawbacks of mill--that it doesn't affect the board--somewhat irrelevant, since it actually incentivizes you to do both.
Crosstown Courier is definitely Dimir as the recently published planeswalkers guide to Gatecrash reveals that Couriers are one of the few Dimir 'public' duties.
Skyknights are a specific rank within Boros. Found that funny considering Lyev Skyknight. Also, I find it really hard that Dimir doesn't have some type of mill/manipulation after reading that guide.
Saying that Mind Rot (or whatever) is a card from Guild X is pointless. For example, because of the art, everybody is saying that Mind Rot is an Orzhov card. But if it's an Orzhov card, it should have the Orzhov watermark. They could have easily put a Dimir spy killing a dude on the card. Would that make Mind Rot a Dimir card then?
I think you are all looking too much into this. If a card doesn't have a guild watermark on it, it's a guildless, neutral card that any citizen of Ravnica can use. Just because it has a creatures from a specific guild on the art, or in the flavor, doesn't automatically make it a card from that guild.
This is why it bothers me when people say that Dark Confidant is an Orzhov card. It's not. It's a guildless dude providing services to all guilds.
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Saying that Mind Rot (or whatever) is a card from Guild X is pointless. For example, because of the art, everybody is saying that Mind Rot is an Orzhov card. But if it's an Orzhov card, it should have the Orzhov watermark. They could have easily put a Dimir spy killing a dude on the card. Would that make Mind Rot a Dimir card then?
I think you are all looking too much into this. If a card doesn't have a guild watermark on it, it's a guildless, neutral card that any citizen of Ravnica can use. Just because it has a creatures from a specific guild on the art, or in the flavor, doesn't automatically make it a card from that guild.
This is why it bothers me when people say that Dark Confidant is an Orzhov card. It's not. It's a guildless dude providing services to all guilds.
We're talking about this from a purely mechanical standpoint. Guild Watermarks only go on cards that either are multicolored or have the guild mechanic, but that doesn't mean that non-watermarked cards aren't created specifically for particular guilds. For instance, Centaur's Herald can go in any green deck but is a lot stronger in Selesnya.
Even though the cards mentioned in this thread are guildless, it doesn't mean their mechanics can't line up with a certain guild more than others, which is what we're trying to figure out.
It was at that moment that I realized: I'm kinda just making these things up. We can just write the rules the way we want them to work. People will have fun, and people will get it.
Precinct Captain seems to fit really well with the Battalion mechanic, so I think it was probably solidly Boros.
I really can't see them NOT trying to give Dimir a mill-based strategy, and possibly mechanic. They tried to in RAV, but Transmute didn't mix with it on really any level. It just seemed kinda half-executed at the time. So it wouldn't surprise me at all to see them try again this time, and really throw their weight behind it. Things like Doorkeeper or Destroy the Evidencecould be evidence of this, but i think Crosstown Courier is really a better idea of what they want to do with it. Just a guess though.
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Uncommon is the perfect area to put cards that go particularly well with GTC cards as opposed to RTR, since they won't show up often enough in triple-RTR draft to mess up the internal synergies there, but they'll show up just often enough in DGR draft to be helpful then. My theory is that there are 10 uncommon cards (1 for each of the 2 guilds in GTC associated with one of the 5 colors) that are specifically meant to be awesome with cards from those other guilds.
I think this makes additional sense because there are numerous uncommons that just don't seem to fit well with the cards in this set, and are drafted later than they should be--they're not necessarily bad cards in a vacuum, there just aren't good ways to take advantage of them. Below are my thoughts for what the 10 cards are. Feel free to chime in.
Blue Simic--Aquus Steed. The flavor is pretty Simic, and the ability just isn't very powerful in triple RTR.
Green Simic--Oak Street Innkeeper. Not really Simic flavorwise, but it definitely just doesn't feel like it fits in RTR. This could point to the Simic mechanic somehow making it easier to tap your own creatures.
Green Gruul--Savage Surge? There aren't a whole lot of green uncommons that just don't fit this set, but this card just doesn't seem as powerful as it might be in other sets, and could have easily been made a common if Wizards had wanted it to be.
Red Gruul--Minotaur Aggressor? Likewise, there aren't a lot of red uncommons that fit here either. Neither the Izzet nor the Rakdos deck really want this card in RTR draft though; it's too expensive for not enough gain for them specifically, and it's not an instant or sorcery for Izzet. Plus he's pretty Gruul flavorwise, and could fit well in a random RG beats deck. I don't know what this points toward for the Gruul mechanic though.
Red Boros--Goblin Rally. Aside from being awesome with Teleportal, there aren't many reasons for red to make many tiny tokens in this set. I'm sure Boros can think of some.
White Boros--Bazaar Krovod. It's just a strange card, that doesn't "fit" with anything from this set. The ability isn't bad though. Someone in another thread was speculating that the Boros ability could be sort of a reverse Battle Cry, where instead of every other creature getting a +1/+0 bonus when a certain creature attacks, that individual creature gets a +1/+0 bonus from all other attacking creatures. Sort of like if Exalted and Battle Cry got together and had a baby. I think this is a really good theory for multiple reasons, and it works well with both of these uncommon "plants".
White Orzhov--Soul Tithe? Sphere of Safety? I wouldn't be surprised if Orzhov was pretty enchantment heavy, and those would both do a lot of work in some sort of enchantment themed deck. Sphere of Safety might be a better guess, since Soul Tithe is probably too good in RTR limited to be just a plant.
Black Orzhov--Shrieking Affliction. The flavor is pretty Orzhov, it's an enchantment, and it focuses on discard which the Orzhov are pretty good at. It also doesn't fit in an RTR deck. As with Gruul, I'm not sure what this says about the guild mechanic specifically.
Black Dimir--Dark Revenant. This is just a fairly bad card in RTR, but it's certainly not an impossible card to make work. I'm sure it can be made to work with whatever the Dimir mechanic is.
Blue Dimir--Psychic Spiral. While there can be Psychic Spiral decks in RTR limited, it doesn't seem like they'd usually be very good, nor would they need to be guild aligned. This fits well in Dimir, and points to maybe some Dimir self-mill. Dimir was probably going to be a mill-focused guild anyway.
So there you have it. Your thoughts?
Well remembered. I think Mind Rot is a specially is suspicious case because that's a traditional core set card but they choose to put it in RTR so it make part of the RTR limited. For me it's major hint Dimir or Orzhov will have discard theme.
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And not just that Mind Rot is reprinted in the set, but that it's got a new art that is so incredibly Orzhov.
I think that they are trying to get some guildless into the sets as well, so the minotaur for exampel could very well be just that, like the flavour text suggests. But your post was a nice read still.
Here's a few I think "fit" mostly with other guilds:
White:
Precinct Captain I think it's hard to say if he's Azorius or Boros because it could be either one, but I think this guy has quite a Boros flavor to him.
Good call on Sphere and Soul Tithe, especially Soul Tithe.
Blue:
Conjured Currency Seems to fit a Dimir flavor to me. Stealing stuff is certainly their thing.
Definitely Psychic Spiral as you noted for Dimir.
Random Observation: Is the guy on Search the City Ral Zarek?
Stealer of Secrets Dimir, no doubt.
Black:
Assassin's Strike Also Dimir
Catacomb Slug too.
Obviously Destroy the Evidence
Necropolis Regent Orzhov perhaps?
Stab Wound also fits Orzhov themes to a tee.
There's also a clear Orzhov reference on Ultimate Price
Red:
Ash Zelaot: Looks very Boros.
I think Goblin Rally is too as you noted, but Minotaur Aggressor actually seems guildless.
Green:
Is Axebane a Gruul location?
Gobbling Ooze is Simic
Rubbleback Rhino could be Gruul based on things like Rumbling Slum
Finally, Rogue's Passage seems pretty Dimir.
I wonder what "throwbacks" to RTR we might get in GTC.
The flavor text of Stealer of Secrets says otherwise. It hints more at guildless card, which is a flavor theme.
Precinct is a quite military term, and there was a "Boros Precinct" wallpaper in the Art Fight on Facebook.
Soul Tithe art was listed as Orzhov in the Art Fight application. It is not as much a guess as a certainty.
Plus, if you look closely, there is Dimir symbol on the conjured coins....
Everything on the card scream Azorius - the art, the runes, the flavor text. Plus, I do not quite think that Dimir will have a mill subtheme this time around.
Looks a lot like that, but Ral is more geared up than the mage on the picture.
Actually, it looks a lot more like a guildless vigilante type of justice for me.
Not confirmed, but it seems far more like the Cult of Yore nature druids.
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With any set with factions you are going to have those creatures who ride the line between two or more factions. Ethercaste Knight being an excellent example from Alara. He has the Bant ability but is also an artifact creature which could earn him a spot in an Esper deck. Going back to the original Ravnica block there are cards like Courier Hawk which by it's flavor text is an Orzhov creature but it could also have found a spot in an Azorious deck as a blocker or in a Boros deck as an additional flyer.
Bellows Lizard at first glance has no guild affiliation but he could work in Boros, Grull, or Rakdos as an early threat blocker or depending on what kind of green pump we see later in the block could be a hard attacker for those finishing few points.
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Mind Rot does sound very Orzhov indeed. And I believe Axebane is more Selesnya than Gruul.
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Definitely true. There are surely lots of cards in RTR that will work well with the guilds in GTC, my theory about the 2 uncommons just centers on some of those cards hinting a little more directly at the guild theme or guild mechanic.
True. I didn't really look at the flavor text for the minotaur before suggesting it. I still don't really see another potentially Gruul-related mono-red uncommon though.
Hmm, the flavor on Psychic Spiral is very Azorius, you're right. That's another one that I didn't really look at. Maybe Faerie Imposter? The flavor is definitely Dimir, and it could point to some sort of ETB theme in Dimir, especially with Dark Revenant being the black Dimir uncommon.
Oh, there's no doubt that it's good set design. It's very smart. The way this block was designed draftwise, though, must mean that there are cards in RTR that work specifically well with the guilds in GTC, otherwise it would be hard for drafters of those guilds to get cards from the final pack. Drafters in the RTR guilds would otherwise have an advantage, since they'd know they'd get good cards in the last pack while the GTC guilds would have to make do with whatever they could make work.
Shrieking Affliction seems to be a Orzhov card. The little devils in the art are actually gargoyles and gargoyles is one of the races shared by white and black (one race commonly associated to the Orzhov). Also, the little gargoyles vest looks really Orzhovian (golden, black, weird masks).
Shrieking Affliction is also a discard theme card. Between this and Mind Rot, i put my coins on Orzhov getting a discard theme or sub-theme.
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Maybe he is an indication of some themes that could tie the two blocks together? Boros matches up with Azorius, Gruul and Golgari with big creatures, Selesyna and Simic in multiping. Real issue is trying to think up an reasonable ties in the last two pair though.
Standard
W.I.P.
EDH
WNorn Tokens
Cards i think hint in theme for the next 2 sets:
Gate/Defender (I think this theme will be a "guildless" theme, just like the aura theme).
Armory Guard
Doorkeeper
Ogre Jailbreaker
Lobber Crew
Axebane Guardian
Gatecreeper Vine
Mill - Dimir sub-theme
Chronic Flooding
Doorkeeper
Crosstown Courier
Destroy the Evidence
Codex Shreder
Taxes - Orzhov Theme
Soul Tithe
Discard - Orzhov Theme
Drainpipe Vermin
Mind Rot
Shrieking Affliction
Quantity Over Quality tokens - Not sure about this. Maybe this is just some tool for Krenko decks in constructed. Otherwise i think goblin tokens is way too random to be a one-of spell. Red is not even the kind of color that do that, it must have a special reason. Could hint into Boros or Gruul mechanic (more likely Boros because of Precinct Captain and Phantom General).
Goblin Rally
Survey the Wreckage
Tap Abilities - Another one i'm not so sure about. Those cards are way to weak in RTR and they are clear limited cards. I think they will have synergies that will be further explored and will be picked if you already got the strong cards of such synergies (RTR will be the last picked booster!).
Bazaar Krozod
Aquus Steed
Oak Street Innkeeper
Savage Surge
BGU Control
R Aggro
Standard - For Fun
BG Auras
I was looking at Deathhead shaman in context of some of the land destruction cards and they almost seem playable. Deathhead in to Packrat in to mindrot into destroy land seems incredible oppressive.
Well, Dimir could likely have a focus on spells like Izzet. Rakdos and Orzhov are pretty damn different though. If anything, Orzhov has more in common with Azorius than Rakdos, at least in terms of overall gameplan. Another card I just thought of that fits Orzhov fairly well is Perilous Shadow. Pretty decent control card.
Skyknights are a specific rank within Boros. Found that funny considering Lyev Skyknight. Also, I find it really hard that Dimir doesn't have some type of mill/manipulation after reading that guide.
Standard
W.I.P.
EDH
WNorn Tokens
It's a new set, we don't have the cards memorized, and googling this many cards is enough to make me not want to read it.
I think you are all looking too much into this. If a card doesn't have a guild watermark on it, it's a guildless, neutral card that any citizen of Ravnica can use. Just because it has a creatures from a specific guild on the art, or in the flavor, doesn't automatically make it a card from that guild.
This is why it bothers me when people say that Dark Confidant is an Orzhov card. It's not. It's a guildless dude providing services to all guilds.
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We're talking about this from a purely mechanical standpoint. Guild Watermarks only go on cards that either are multicolored or have the guild mechanic, but that doesn't mean that non-watermarked cards aren't created specifically for particular guilds. For instance, Centaur's Herald can go in any green deck but is a lot stronger in Selesnya.
Even though the cards mentioned in this thread are guildless, it doesn't mean their mechanics can't line up with a certain guild more than others, which is what we're trying to figure out.
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I really can't see them NOT trying to give Dimir a mill-based strategy, and possibly mechanic. They tried to in RAV, but Transmute didn't mix with it on really any level. It just seemed kinda half-executed at the time. So it wouldn't surprise me at all to see them try again this time, and really throw their weight behind it. Things like Doorkeeper or Destroy the Evidence could be evidence of this, but i think Crosstown Courier is really a better idea of what they want to do with it. Just a guess though.