So MaRo's article today gave the overall breakdown of what will happen to Bolas.
Two guilds in Guilds of Ravnica will fall to Nicol Bolas in the form of PWs under his control and the same will happen with three guilds in Allegiance.
We also know that there was only one configuration of guilds in Guilds of Ravnica that would cover almost all of their requirements.
So... the two guilds in Guilds of Ravnica that fall to Nicol Bolas should be Golgari (with Vraska) and Izzet (with Ral Zarek). Both are known to be working with Nicol Bolas, we know that there are only two PWs in packs in Guilds, and we know that they are those two.
So where do we go from here? Well, if we assume that the colors of the PWs must match the guild they take over, we need to find likely matches and go from there.
My theory also is that there will be 3 PWs in Allegiance, and those PWs will take over the guilds.
So, let's go through each guild in Allegiance and find likely proxies:
Azorius. The only likely candidate is Dovin Baan. He matches the colors and, in many areas, the temperament of the Azorius. He did not work directly with Nicol Bolas during the events of Kaladesh, but through Tezzeret. He could have joined up after that, however. Another point in favor of taking over the Azorius is that the card Assassin's Trophy may indicate that Vraska has taken out Isperia... which would leave a power vacuum (as listed in the card) that Nicol Bolas could exploit. IOW, he is using his PW proxies to start dominoes falling.
Final idea on Azorius: Possibly - likely
Orzhov. Again, there seems to be one obvious candidate, and that is Kaya, Ghost Assassin. If there was a PW that could threaten the Obzedat, I think it would be one with the epithet 'Ghost Assassin'. Liliana could not do this. She is shown in the Dominaria story to not work with ghosts very much. (She also isn't White.) The only strike against Kaya taking over the Orzhov Syndicate is that she seems to be on the side of 'the good guys' on the cover of the Ravnica novel.
Final idea on Orzhov: Possibly.
Rakdos. Here, there is an obvious choice: Tibalt. Tibalt fits Rakdos like a glove, and while he may not be that controllable, Nicol Bolas is likely to be able to do so (to the extent necessary). Issue here is that I'm not sure if Tibalt could take out Rakdos himself. If given the ability to do so, this should be perfectly fine. Angrath is another possibility, but as a family man who just got back to said family, it is very doubtful he'd sign up with Bolas.
Final idea on Rakdos: Very likely.
Gruul. Well, there is a PW: Domri Rade. As a native of Ravnica and a member of the guild, he would very obviously be well-placed to gain control over the guild... except... well, he's, what, a teen, and his guild's entire philosophy is 'might makes right'? Like Tibalt, but much more so, he would probably need a lot of help to get rid of Borborygmos and other possible challengers.
Final idea on Gruul: Unlikely
Simic. Again, there is a PW: Kiora. She would tend to fit the Simic Combine quite well, particularly the RTR version with Merfolk. Kiora is also known to 'not play well with others', particularly the Gatewatch. She would seem to be quite flighty and undependable... although Bolas has shown quite an affinity to get people to do what they want (cf. Liliana).
Final idea on Simic: Possibly.
So, at the end, we can say from a perspective of people likely working with Bolas, etc., that the most likely guilds are probably...
Rakdos
Azorius
Simic
That would feel a bit weird, though. Now, from the perspective of color-balancing the guilds, so that the Bolas guilds and non-Bolas guilds actually have the same number of colors represented (specifically 2), there is only one combination that works, and it hinges on the fact that neither Bolas guild contains White in Guilds. That means, to get 2 White Bolas guilds out of ten, both White guilds in Allegiance need to side with Bolas.
That would give him
Azorius
Orzhov
Golgari
Izzet
and the final guild to give him 2 representatives of each color would be... Gruul.
If this is true, then the Bolas guilds would be
Azorius
Golgari
Gruul
Izzet
Orzhov
and the anti-Bolas guilds would be
Boros
Dimir
Rakdos
Selesnya
Simic
... a bit hard to believe that NEITHER Dimir NOR Rakdos would follow Bolas, but I dunno.
Oh, I do think that they aren't going to go for color symmetry and Rakdos will be on Bolas's side with Tibalt FIRMLY in control. Just pointing out that it's impossible in the color-balance scenario.
OTOH, Dimir is quite clearly not on Bolas's side, given the flavor text on the Dimir counterspell. Even though there is a pretty good PW (Tezzeret) for that. OTOOH, Tezzeret is actually known on Ravnica, no? As part of the Infinite Consortium?
Raptor: I did not forget about Ob Nixilis (although I don't think they'd work together as they're both tyrants). I gave as one of my assumptions is that the PW would need to match the colors of the guild exactly, and Ob Nixilis has always been monoblack.
However, looking at Ob Nixilis, we know that he used to be an oldwalker, and he was a tyrant that ruled many planes. Given all that, he sounds like a rival to Nicol Bolas, and not someone who would work with him.
For the record, Maro considers Ob Nixilis and Tibalt both to be BR. However, I'm thinking a prospective Rakdos PW would be a blood witch native to Ravnica with precedent interest in the guild, a mix of hedonism and ambition that neither Nixilis nor Tibalt would bring to the table.
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I'm not sure about Dovin. While he was clearly unnerved by Tezzeret's... drive, the fact that Nicol Bolas can clearly control Tezzeret can only be a plus.
And then there is the opposite approach: 'do what I want you to do or Ghirapur is a crater'.
A planeswalker working for Bolas doesn't need to know the full extension of his plans. Vraska certainly doesn't, going by the Ixalan story, and I doubt Ral would be OK with whatever Bolas will do to Ravnica next using the Sun and the Eternals.
Bolas can (and probably will) double-cross some or all of the new guild leaders in the third set, and alternatively any of them may turn on Bolas on their own. That's certainly Jace's plan with Vraska, give her memories back so that she will switch sides.
So, Kaya being in the Gatewatch's side later doesn't mean she can't start the story working for Bolas. All he has to do is to hire her to kill the Obzedat. He can also deceive someone like Dovin or Domri to work for him.
We may finally get a Ramaz card, leading the Gruul. He'd be a good replacement after Sarkhan left Bolas's side.
And if Bolas is going to use the Sun to trap all those walkers in Ravnica, the one most likely to be spared is Tezzeret - after all, he *is* the Planar Bridge at this point, so he has a use and can't be trapped anyway. So I doubt Tezz will lead any of the guilds, his role in the plan is something more unique.
willdice: I don't disagree with any of this, except to point out that the PWs Bolas gets to take over the guilds do just that: take over the guilds. That is certainly the case with Vraska and Ral Zarek. So my only issue is that Kaya can't just simply kill the Obzedat... she also has to run the guild. Now, I'm not saying that she can't switch sides in the third set, but it's not quite as simple as you're letting on.
Angrath doesn't fit being with Rakdos or Nicol Bolas at all. While I wouldn't mind seeing more of him, 'angry family man' doesn't turn into 'Bolas stooge' easily. There's also virtually no time. It's very obvious that Angrath would have to have been recruited by Nicol Bolas after Ixalan, which seems... not a lot of time to 'set up' for Ravnica.
About the only way Bolas could get Angrath to work for him would be to kidnap his family.
willdice: I don't disagree with any of this, except to point out that the PWs Bolas gets to take over the guilds do just that: take over the guilds. That is certainly the case with Vraska and Ral Zarek. So my only issue is that Kaya can't just simply kill the Obzedat... she also has to run the guild. Now, I'm not saying that she can't switch sides in the third set, but it's not quite as simple as you're letting on.
There is another planeswalker: Ramaz. Ramaz has never been seen on a card before, but was part of the original Zendikar story and appeared in an old Duels of the Planeswalkers as a Temur 'walker. He is shown as clearly allied with Bolas, part of his "Anti-Gatewatch", so his presence in this final throwdown would make sense. He could slot right into Gruul or, I guess, Simic - as a wild shaman on the fringes of society, Gruul makes more sense for sure.
For color balance, I think at least one more "Green" guild will fall to Bolas, and Gruul makes a lot of sense as you pointed out.
Of course, it's also possible that we get...
Azorius - Dovin Baan
Golgari - Vraska
Izzet - Ral Zarek
Rakdos - Liliana or Tibbs (Liliana has been increasingly 'emotional'/passionate, and moving into Red wouldn't be a totally out-of-character move. She is a demon-slaying, zombie-manipulating expert. Tibbs would just be awesome)
Simic or Gruul - Ramaz, Domri, or Kiora - no color balance, but ce la vie!
I just don't think Kaya will be on the bad guys' side after all that build up and her placement on the "heroes" side for the book cover, although it is possible that the Obzedat is on Bolas's side, and Kaya is brought in to fight the ghost army.
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Orzhov, Gruul, and Azorius is the only possibility if you want each color to appear exactly twice. Of course, that's a questionable assumption, but seems like a good one to me. I'd bet on Kaya (seems pretty definite due to being shown on the novel cover), Domri (only real candidate), and Dovin (he at least has some tie to Bolas) as the planeswalkers taking them over.
Kaya's personality doesn't fit the Orzhov at all. I can imagine her getting paid for killing the Obzedat (and not really caring much about who is the one paying), but that's about it. Her actually running the guild would be a very odd fit.
Rakdos (the guild) should be pretty easy to sway on Bolas' side, I guess their reaction to an undead army rampaging through Ravnica would be "Awesome, more violence and destruction!". Rakdos (the dempn) might see the bigger picture, so he might get replaced, but other than that, I don't really see Rakdos taking the good guys' side.
Orzhov, Gruul, and Azorius is the only possibility if you want each color to appear exactly twice.
That's the long and short of it. We already have confirmation on Azorius and a long-running storyline for Teysa wanting to make a move against the Council and Kaya conveniently showing up to get rid of them, so no question there from me.
Gruul is the least explicable, but I imagine if Domri Rade were to become anything more than an annoying teen without purpose, then why not make him become such under the tutelage from a manipulative force like Bolas. I'd like Bolas to teach Domri the raw power a planeswalker can unleash which could be just enough to defeat Borborygmos (who actually has been foreshadowed as getting old in the RTR flavor blurbs, attracting upstart challengers since back then, so having him replaced is not unlikely - and two replacement planeswalkers *do* come from within the guild they usurp already.) Maybe this storyline can save Domri from the scrapheap.
The interesting thing is that Bolas places planeswalkers as guildmasters, but those planeswalkers are maneuvered into position without necessarily being aware of the schemes - as shown in Ral. That certainly adds options regarding who or how. Though the obviouy candidates among the known planeswalkers remain the same. You have to imagine that it's not a coincidence that planeswalkers of the fitting color pairs (not yet covered by native Ravnican planeswalkers) have been introduced during the onset of the Bolas arc.
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And if the walkers commanding Azorius, Gruul and Orzhov are really that new one from the novel cover, Domri, and Kaya respectively, I expect them to also go against Bolas eventually. The new one and Kaya appear to be on the Gatewatch side in that cover.
So, don't be surprised if all guilds end up going against Bolas in the third set.
If colour balance was a factor then the only possible scenario is;
Azorius - the power vacuum from Isperias death (assassins trophy) let's someone like dovin baan take over.
Orzhov - BW is the colour combination that most needs a new walker. Tezeret is officially esper colours, not just BU so it's possible for them to nudge him BW
Gruul - I agree that Gruul is the least likely to join with bolas - but the only planes walkers that will be in this set are on bolas side and Demi rade is Gruul. It's possible they could save her for 3rd set but this is the only scenario that makes sense if colour balance matters (and we don't know that it does)
Lore wise the only Guild in alliance that would have motivation to join bolas willingly is simic. They are pragmatic enough to want knowledge from bolas. All the other guilds need some amount of manipulation. The death of Isperias speaks to azorius (also - dovin baan fits right in there) . Rakdos is too faithful to their demon Lord so I can't see them working with bolas - at least not in any willing sense. They'd have to be tricked or manipulated somehow.
Orzhov also doesn't seem ripe to work with bolas without manipulation or hostile takeover.
So thematically the only scenario that makes sense is simic, azorius and one other. The other 3 all seem equally unlikely but I'd put a small wager on orzhov only because we desperately need a new orzhov walker.
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After reading the rest of the comments - people seem sure that Rakdos will join bolas if only because they can't see them on the 'good guys' side.
I'll give you one reason - self preservation. They are among the most likely to be aware of bolas manipulation and lash out. I expect they will fight against bolas - not with him.
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Even before color balance factored in, I was thinking Gruul could be likely.
Of all known characters from RtR, Domri would probably be the easiest for Bolas to manipulate.
We also saw 2/3 "Guildwalkers" return, so I wouldn't be surprised to see the third even though he was not popular.
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Honestly I have the feeling that most turned guilds will abandon Bolas as soon as they realize what is going on.
Ral and Niv-Mizzet will take back Izzet. Vraska will turn because the power of love Jace gives her the memories back.
I can see Kaya taken over Orzhov, but Telsa Karlov has a quite strong claim to leadership and she seems to be pretty down with the whole guild pact thing. Azorius are the ones who spearheaded the guild pact so I can see them come out to the pro-Ravnica side.
The only ones I really don't see are the Grull since they really got the short end of the stick in Ravnica.
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According to the book description " dozens of Planeswalkers have come to Ravnica to face off agaisnt Nicol Bolas
Thats a lot of walkers (24+???)
Those who started on Bolas side may take the oppurtunity to turn on him during this. I mean they will even realize that some egotistical Dragon is trying to lay waste of their plane with his eternal army and trying to conjuer the last spell needed to get him back to god hood and might not Appreciate such a thing
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Been a member here for over a dozen years. Playing since '95 just got lost in the twitch shuffle.
I'd say it must include all "masterwork" planeswalkers, if it wasn't for Elspeth. What gives?
We know of the Gatewatch (Gideon, Chandra, Jace, Ajani, and Teferi), plus two allies (Jaya and Karn). That's seven. There's at least five working for Bolas, so one dozen already, but almost half on Bolas's side at first. Ajani needs to bring at least another 12, and have all Bolas's guildmaster minions turn on him, to reach 24. That's a tall order.
Honestly I have the feeling that most turned guilds will abandon Bolas as soon as they realize what is going on.
Ral and Niv-Mizzet will take back Izzet. Vraska will turn because the power of love Jace gives her the memories back.
I can see Kaya taken over Orzhov, but Telsa Karlov has a quite strong claim to leadership and she seems to be pretty down with the whole guild pact thing. Azorius are the ones who spearheaded the guild pact so I can see them come out to the pro-Ravnica side.
The only ones I really don't see are the Grull since they really got the short end of the stick in Ravnica.
I feel the same way. I think Bolas is due for a loss since he pretty much came out on top in the last three main set stories, or at the very least Bolas is due for some of his well laid plans backfiring on him and preventing him from getting what he wants from Ravnica.
However if Bolas does lose, I doubt everything will be back to normal in Ravnica by the end of the third set because leaving Ravnica in an unstable state gives WOTC an easy excuse to come back to the plane if they want to.
As for the guilds that will fall, I can’t say for certain which ones they will be, but I have the feeling that at least one of them will be a big surprise.
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Two guilds in Guilds of Ravnica will fall to Nicol Bolas in the form of PWs under his control and the same will happen with three guilds in Allegiance.
We also know that there was only one configuration of guilds in Guilds of Ravnica that would cover almost all of their requirements.
So... the two guilds in Guilds of Ravnica that fall to Nicol Bolas should be Golgari (with Vraska) and Izzet (with Ral Zarek). Both are known to be working with Nicol Bolas, we know that there are only two PWs in packs in Guilds, and we know that they are those two.
So where do we go from here? Well, if we assume that the colors of the PWs must match the guild they take over, we need to find likely matches and go from there.
My theory also is that there will be 3 PWs in Allegiance, and those PWs will take over the guilds.
So, let's go through each guild in Allegiance and find likely proxies:
Azorius. The only likely candidate is Dovin Baan. He matches the colors and, in many areas, the temperament of the Azorius. He did not work directly with Nicol Bolas during the events of Kaladesh, but through Tezzeret. He could have joined up after that, however. Another point in favor of taking over the Azorius is that the card Assassin's Trophy may indicate that Vraska has taken out Isperia... which would leave a power vacuum (as listed in the card) that Nicol Bolas could exploit. IOW, he is using his PW proxies to start dominoes falling.
Final idea on Azorius: Possibly - likely
Orzhov. Again, there seems to be one obvious candidate, and that is Kaya, Ghost Assassin. If there was a PW that could threaten the Obzedat, I think it would be one with the epithet 'Ghost Assassin'. Liliana could not do this. She is shown in the Dominaria story to not work with ghosts very much. (She also isn't White.) The only strike against Kaya taking over the Orzhov Syndicate is that she seems to be on the side of 'the good guys' on the cover of the Ravnica novel.
Final idea on Orzhov: Possibly.
Rakdos. Here, there is an obvious choice: Tibalt. Tibalt fits Rakdos like a glove, and while he may not be that controllable, Nicol Bolas is likely to be able to do so (to the extent necessary). Issue here is that I'm not sure if Tibalt could take out Rakdos himself. If given the ability to do so, this should be perfectly fine. Angrath is another possibility, but as a family man who just got back to said family, it is very doubtful he'd sign up with Bolas.
Final idea on Rakdos: Very likely.
Gruul. Well, there is a PW: Domri Rade. As a native of Ravnica and a member of the guild, he would very obviously be well-placed to gain control over the guild... except... well, he's, what, a teen, and his guild's entire philosophy is 'might makes right'? Like Tibalt, but much more so, he would probably need a lot of help to get rid of Borborygmos and other possible challengers.
Final idea on Gruul: Unlikely
Simic. Again, there is a PW: Kiora. She would tend to fit the Simic Combine quite well, particularly the RTR version with Merfolk. Kiora is also known to 'not play well with others', particularly the Gatewatch. She would seem to be quite flighty and undependable... although Bolas has shown quite an affinity to get people to do what they want (cf. Liliana).
Final idea on Simic: Possibly.
So, at the end, we can say from a perspective of people likely working with Bolas, etc., that the most likely guilds are probably...
Rakdos
Azorius
Simic
That would feel a bit weird, though. Now, from the perspective of color-balancing the guilds, so that the Bolas guilds and non-Bolas guilds actually have the same number of colors represented (specifically 2), there is only one combination that works, and it hinges on the fact that neither Bolas guild contains White in Guilds. That means, to get 2 White Bolas guilds out of ten, both White guilds in Allegiance need to side with Bolas.
That would give him
Azorius
Orzhov
Golgari
Izzet
and the final guild to give him 2 representatives of each color would be... Gruul.
If this is true, then the Bolas guilds would be
Azorius
Golgari
Gruul
Izzet
Orzhov
and the anti-Bolas guilds would be
Boros
Dimir
Rakdos
Selesnya
Simic
... a bit hard to believe that NEITHER Dimir NOR Rakdos would follow Bolas, but I dunno.
Still... what do you think?
OTOH, Dimir is quite clearly not on Bolas's side, given the flavor text on the Dimir counterspell. Even though there is a pretty good PW (Tezzeret) for that. OTOOH, Tezzeret is actually known on Ravnica, no? As part of the Infinite Consortium?
However, looking at Ob Nixilis, we know that he used to be an oldwalker, and he was a tyrant that ruled many planes. Given all that, he sounds like a rival to Nicol Bolas, and not someone who would work with him.
Color balance certainly seems probable, and the idea that two of the Guilds in Bolas' own colors oppose Bolas is ironic. But then, black is the color most likely to turn on its own.
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
And then there is the opposite approach: 'do what I want you to do or Ghirapur is a crater'.
Bolas can (and probably will) double-cross some or all of the new guild leaders in the third set, and alternatively any of them may turn on Bolas on their own. That's certainly Jace's plan with Vraska, give her memories back so that she will switch sides.
So, Kaya being in the Gatewatch's side later doesn't mean she can't start the story working for Bolas. All he has to do is to hire her to kill the Obzedat. He can also deceive someone like Dovin or Domri to work for him.
We may finally get a Ramaz card, leading the Gruul. He'd be a good replacement after Sarkhan left Bolas's side.
And if Bolas is going to use the Sun to trap all those walkers in Ravnica, the one most likely to be spared is Tezzeret - after all, he *is* the Planar Bridge at this point, so he has a use and can't be trapped anyway. So I doubt Tezz will lead any of the guilds, his role in the plan is something more unique.
About the only way Bolas could get Angrath to work for him would be to kidnap his family.
True. I don't see her leading a guild.
For color balance, I think at least one more "Green" guild will fall to Bolas, and Gruul makes a lot of sense as you pointed out.
Of course, it's also possible that we get...
Azorius - Dovin Baan
Golgari - Vraska
Izzet - Ral Zarek
Rakdos - Liliana or Tibbs (Liliana has been increasingly 'emotional'/passionate, and moving into Red wouldn't be a totally out-of-character move. She is a demon-slaying, zombie-manipulating expert. Tibbs would just be awesome)
Simic or Gruul - Ramaz, Domri, or Kiora - no color balance, but ce la vie!
I just don't think Kaya will be on the bad guys' side after all that build up and her placement on the "heroes" side for the book cover, although it is possible that the Obzedat is on Bolas's side, and Kaya is brought in to fight the ghost army.
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And I do think Selesnya, Boros and Dimir are more or less save.
Dovin Baan in Azorius would just be awesome.
Domri had time to grow up, could have gotten help from Bolas and Grull has good reason to revolt.
I can't imagine Rakdos falling. They are to much focused on, well, Rakdos. Serious he should be an Elder Demon by now.
The Ghost Council is pretty much invincible, but Kaya exist and she is a sell-sword. (I also think she would be a good candidate to turn on Bolas).
And I can't imagine any Simic Walker siding with Bolas.
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Rakdos (the guild) should be pretty easy to sway on Bolas' side, I guess their reaction to an undead army rampaging through Ravnica would be "Awesome, more violence and destruction!". Rakdos (the dempn) might see the bigger picture, so he might get replaced, but other than that, I don't really see Rakdos taking the good guys' side.
That's the long and short of it. We already have confirmation on Azorius and a long-running storyline for Teysa wanting to make a move against the Council and Kaya conveniently showing up to get rid of them, so no question there from me.
Gruul is the least explicable, but I imagine if Domri Rade were to become anything more than an annoying teen without purpose, then why not make him become such under the tutelage from a manipulative force like Bolas. I'd like Bolas to teach Domri the raw power a planeswalker can unleash which could be just enough to defeat Borborygmos (who actually has been foreshadowed as getting old in the RTR flavor blurbs, attracting upstart challengers since back then, so having him replaced is not unlikely - and two replacement planeswalkers *do* come from within the guild they usurp already.) Maybe this storyline can save Domri from the scrapheap.
The interesting thing is that Bolas places planeswalkers as guildmasters, but those planeswalkers are maneuvered into position without necessarily being aware of the schemes - as shown in Ral. That certainly adds options regarding who or how. Though the obviouy candidates among the known planeswalkers remain the same. You have to imagine that it's not a coincidence that planeswalkers of the fitting color pairs (not yet covered by native Ravnican planeswalkers) have been introduced during the onset of the Bolas arc.
Finally a good white villain quote: "So, do I ever re-evaluate my life choices? Never, because I know what I'm doing is a righteous cause."
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Command the Storm hints that Ral may resent being used as a pawn.
And if the walkers commanding Azorius, Gruul and Orzhov are really that new one from the novel cover, Domri, and Kaya respectively, I expect them to also go against Bolas eventually. The new one and Kaya appear to be on the Gatewatch side in that cover.
So, don't be surprised if all guilds end up going against Bolas in the third set.
Azorius - the power vacuum from Isperias death (assassins trophy) let's someone like dovin baan take over.
Orzhov - BW is the colour combination that most needs a new walker. Tezeret is officially esper colours, not just BU so it's possible for them to nudge him BW
Gruul - I agree that Gruul is the least likely to join with bolas - but the only planes walkers that will be in this set are on bolas side and Demi rade is Gruul. It's possible they could save her for 3rd set but this is the only scenario that makes sense if colour balance matters (and we don't know that it does)
Lore wise the only Guild in alliance that would have motivation to join bolas willingly is simic. They are pragmatic enough to want knowledge from bolas. All the other guilds need some amount of manipulation. The death of Isperias speaks to azorius (also - dovin baan fits right in there) . Rakdos is too faithful to their demon Lord so I can't see them working with bolas - at least not in any willing sense. They'd have to be tricked or manipulated somehow.
Orzhov also doesn't seem ripe to work with bolas without manipulation or hostile takeover.
So thematically the only scenario that makes sense is simic, azorius and one other. The other 3 all seem equally unlikely but I'd put a small wager on orzhov only because we desperately need a new orzhov walker.
I'll give you one reason - self preservation. They are among the most likely to be aware of bolas manipulation and lash out. I expect they will fight against bolas - not with him.
Of all known characters from RtR, Domri would probably be the easiest for Bolas to manipulate.
We also saw 2/3 "Guildwalkers" return, so I wouldn't be surprised to see the third even though he was not popular.
Reprint Stasis!
Control needs more love.
EDH:
Momir Vig, Simic Visionary
Melek, Izzet Paragon
Oona, Queen of the Fae
Bruna, Light of Alabaster
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Rhys the Redeemed
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Sen Triplets
The Mimeoplasm
WUBRGSliver OverlordGRBUW
WUBRGSliver Hivelord(Superfriends)GRBUW
Ral and Niv-Mizzet will take back Izzet. Vraska will turn because
the power of loveJace gives her the memories back.I can see Kaya taken over Orzhov, but Telsa Karlov has a quite strong claim to leadership and she seems to be pretty down with the whole guild pact thing. Azorius are the ones who spearheaded the guild pact so I can see them come out to the pro-Ravnica side.
The only ones I really don't see are the Grull since they really got the short end of the stick in Ravnica.
Hands to the sky
Give a round of applause
For the great Miss Y!
Thats a lot of walkers (24+???)
Those who started on Bolas side may take the oppurtunity to turn on him during this. I mean they will even realize that some egotistical Dragon is trying to lay waste of their plane with his eternal army and trying to conjuer the last spell needed to get him back to god hood and might not Appreciate such a thing
I'd say it must include all "masterwork" planeswalkers, if it wasn't for Elspeth. What gives?
We know of the Gatewatch (Gideon, Chandra, Jace, Ajani, and Teferi), plus two allies (Jaya and Karn). That's seven. There's at least five working for Bolas, so one dozen already, but almost half on Bolas's side at first. Ajani needs to bring at least another 12, and have all Bolas's guildmaster minions turn on him, to reach 24. That's a tall order.
I feel the same way. I think Bolas is due for a loss since he pretty much came out on top in the last three main set stories, or at the very least Bolas is due for some of his well laid plans backfiring on him and preventing him from getting what he wants from Ravnica.
However if Bolas does lose, I doubt everything will be back to normal in Ravnica by the end of the third set because leaving Ravnica in an unstable state gives WOTC an easy excuse to come back to the plane if they want to.
As for the guilds that will fall, I can’t say for certain which ones they will be, but I have the feeling that at least one of them will be a big surprise.