Since we are returning to Ravnica a third time, it made me think that a whole new mechanic for every guild would probably be too much while choosing which one of the guilds 2 mechanics, would be hard to do because you would probably annoy a lot of people by choosing a mechanic for a guild they didn't want.
What if every guild had cards that let you choose either of the 2 mechanics from the sets.
Orzhov made you choose between Haunt or Extort
Golgari made you choose between Dredge or Scavenge
Dimir made you choose between Transmute or Cipher, and so on.
Would that be too weird and create less identity for the guilds or what you like something like this?
I was thinking they might try and design an new keyword that sort of combines the effects of both, but looking back, I don't know if that is actually possible with some of them. (Haunt/Extort, Transmute/Cipher) for instance. they do entirely different things.
If anything, I'm thinking we are going to get entirely new, but similar mechanics. Golgari will do something from the GY, Simic will do something that manipulates creatures/counters in some way, boros will want to build an army, etc.
i'd be willing to bet money that wotc will never do dredge, cipher, or haunt again. all of them are considered failures. 10, 10, & 9 respectively on the storm scale.
Just because its been over a decade since Rav 1.0, what were all of the unique keywords for each guild? I don't remember them, and can barely remember RtR for that matter.
Eh, I'd rather just get a new set of keywords. Or see some fitting keywords return. Izzet Surge, Boros Battle Cry, and Rakdos Madness/Morbid would work well. I could see Bolster in Simic. Morbid or Undying would fit Golgari.
Just because its been over a decade since Rav 1.0, what were all of the unique keywords for each guild? I don't remember them, and can barely remember RtR for that matter.
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
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.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
Detain, Bloodrush, Convoke, Populate, Extort, Battalion, and Evolve all seem like ones I could see coming back. Azorius with Detain seems pretty much what they'd want for Azorius, Forecast is all kinds of wonky. They could try and do something different if they want to play up a different angle though, or make something more controlling. Dimir definitely will get something new, both of its mechanics are utter flops. Rakdos... I could see getting either of the old ones back I suppose, but neither of them seems super great. Hard to say. Gruul kind of works with what they have, but could get a new one. Selesnya has two pretty solid success stories, not really in need of a new one. Orzhov has Extort but Haunt was a failure. Izzet hasn't hit the creativity theme they want so I expect they'll try to do a new one. I guess Scavenge could come up, Dredge isn't though unless they've lost their heads. I could see Delve maybe. Radiance definitely no, Battalion is pretty solid so maybe. I think Simic could get something new but Evolve feels like it could be an easy one to bring back.
They're going to do new mechanics. Some old guild mechanics can't come back (because they're bad or have limited design space) and it would be insanely disappointing to fans of some guilds if their guilds didn't get a new mechanic while other guilds did. Plus, guild mechanics are a good place to use mechanic ideas that are too limited to show up as a keyword under normal circumstances. At most I can see them returning something like Convoke which is a beloved home run mechanic, but most guilds simply never got a mechanic that was as good as Convoke. Off the top of my head, neither Dimir or Izzet mechanic is something I could see coming back.
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On average, Magic players are worse at new card evaluation than almost every other skill, except perhaps sideboarding.
I'm going with 10 new mechanics with a few "call back" cards (i.e. Azores getting Arrest reprinted again, a one off Boros cards that get boosted when you attack with over three creatures ect).
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Yeah I think you have to do new ones maybe the successful guilds will get a similar mechanic to one or two of their effective mechanics.
I think Dimir and Boros especially need some help. Cause Ravnica has overdefined their color pairs and not for the better in my book.
You got consider design space, fan feedback, flavor, and effectiveness. I guess Selesyna does have an embarrassment of riches ie both its mechanics worked pretty well. But yeah new mechanics besides they are going to have Guild Decks so players will be presumably be able to grab the greatest hits in their color pairs (I don't think those decks are standard legal so hopefully Doubling Season gets a goddamn reprint).
Honestly, other than Convoke and maybe Bloodthirst, I don't think there's any Ravnica mechanic that is loved enough that it could come back and not disappoint players for not being a new mechanic. There's a reason those two came back in core sets.
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According to Maro's Storm Scale: Ravnica and Return to Ravnica, Detain, Populate, Extort, Replicate, Overload, and Evolve all were fairly popular. Bloodthirst was actually unpopular when they first did it, and Convoke was liked. That said, other factors besides popularity affect a mechanic's likelihood to return. Overload, for example, is limited in the range of effects it can be used with, thus it gets a Storm Scale rating of 6. Dredge and Transmute both were highly popular, but Dredge proved to be broken and Transmute is a tutoring mechanic which Wizards doesn't want to do anymore (at least not when they're so flexible; the recently revealed "Partners with X" is a very focused tutor).
Detain, I'm surprised hasn't been made evergreen as it feels like the kind of mechanic that works well enough to be used but isn't exciting enough to headline a set, much like Fight.
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
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.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
All I ask is that they bring back Meld as the Simic guild mechanic. It's just too perfect. Obviously, that would probably also mean that the Rakdos or Orzhov would also have some transform cards to maintain color balance. Another neat thought I had was that Rampage would be great for the Gruul. In conjunction with trample or menace, it would make combat very interesting.
Since we are returning to Ravnica a third time, it made me think that a whole new mechanic for every guild would probably be too much while choosing which one of the guilds 2 mechanics, would be hard to do because you would probably annoy a lot of people by choosing a mechanic for a guild they didn't want.
What if every guild had cards that let you choose either of the 2 mechanics from the sets.
Orzhov made you choose between Haunt or Extort
Golgari made you choose between Dredge or Scavenge
Dimir made you choose between Transmute or Cipher, and so on.
Would that be too weird and create less identity for the guilds or what you like something like this?
Yes, because putting ten mechanics in a set isn't confusing at all.
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It's about time for the reserved list to die, for the sake of Vintage and Legacy (And Commander).
All I ask is that they bring back Meld as the Simic guild mechanic. It's just too perfect. Obviously, that would probably also mean that the Rakdos or Orzhov would also have some transform cards to maintain color balance. Another neat thought I had was that Rampage would be great for the Gruul. In conjunction with trample or menace, it would make combat very interesting.
I wouldn't be surprised if the second set had a DFC mechanic for each guild. Simic could get meld, obviously. Orzhov could have a death trigger that returns creatures to the battlefield transformed as an aura, essentially haunt done right. Azorius could have spells that put themselves onto the battlefield transformed as enchantments if you pay a higher cost, since Azorius has been almost given an enchantment mechanic before (Constellation under a different name in RTR) for the law flavor and this would play well in control decks as well. Rakdos could have creatures where you can choose to have them enter the battlefield transformed, with back side being larger or more powerful but with a drawback, as a way to represent demonic forms of creatures and as a callback to unleash. Gruul could have a monstrosity variant similar to the Eldritch Moon werewolves or lands that transform into creatures as a new take on awaken.
Also worth noting: Guilds of Ravnica has 259 cards while Ravnica Allegiance has 264. In theory that could just mean that the second set has an extra basic land cycle, but I don't know why that would be necessary, especially with Ravnica sets traditionally being so parallel. If DFCs in the second set primarily replaced cards that would have been in the set anyway but had to add a few extra cards since DFCs skew upwards in rarity, that might explain it. Regardless of whether DFCs are present or not, I think that they'll hold off on split cards until the third set, one because they would be perfect to show guilds working together against Bolas, and two because the designers seem to not want more than five mechanics in a single set nowadays. In theory the split cards could be aftermath cards as the ultimate combination of Ravnica mechanics with Bolas mechanics, but they may instead choose to lean on other mechanics such as afflict or cycling to show Bolas's side of the conflict.
Also, also: I think that the first set might be a -1/-1 counter set. Ravnica sets have always had to be +1/+1 counter sets to accommodate the Simic back when they were all drafted together, but now that they're drafted separately the first set could in theory be a -1/-1 counter set while the second set would be +1/+1 counters. -1/-1 counters would fit the flavor of the Golgari very well and could potentially see some use from the Dimir as well, though in all likelihood only the Golgari would have them directly involved in their named mechanic. Not being able to use +1/+1 counters might hurt the design space for the Selesnya a little bit, but they can just go all-in on tokens again and it should be fine. I also wouldn't mind seeing either a renamed ninjitsu or ninjitsu variant, or some sort of morph variant, for the Dimir since I think either of those would fit their flavor much better than mill would. If they do go with mill again they better actually give it the mechanic and not pull the guild in two directions by having both mill and evasive creatures which contribute to two completely separate win conditions.
We'll see what happens, but hopefully they do something interesting with the mechanics.
Hmm could the difference be mostly Planeswalkers? Seems like this would be three sets to print a lot seeing as Ajani is assembling a team. You got to figure his team is mostly characters who have been sitting on the bench for ages (so no cards in standard) or brand new. And Bolas also presumably did some recruitment of his own.
I expect to see a pushed Bolas at minimum. I say Jace but he already has a pushed card.
It could also be lands if they want to make sure you get a pair...and don't want to finish the pair in the set after Ravnica: Infinity War.
All I ask is that they bring back Meld as the Simic guild mechanic. It's just too perfect. Obviously, that would probably also mean that the Rakdos or Orzhov would also have some transform cards to maintain color balance. Another neat thought I had was that Rampage would be great for the Gruul. In conjunction with trample or menace, it would make combat very interesting.
I wouldn't be surprised if the second set had a DFC mechanic for each guild. Simic could get meld, obviously. Orzhov could have a death trigger that returns creatures to the battlefield transformed as an aura, essentially haunt done right. Azorius could have spells that put themselves onto the battlefield transformed as enchantments if you pay a higher cost, since Azorius has been almost given an enchantment mechanic before (Constellation under a different name in RTR) for the law flavor and this would play well in control decks as well. Rakdos could have creatures where you can choose to have them enter the battlefield transformed, with back side being larger or more powerful but with a drawback, as a way to represent demonic forms of creatures and as a callback to unleash. Gruul could have a monstrosity variant similar to the Eldritch Moon werewolves or lands that transform into creatures as a new take on awaken.
Also worth noting: Guilds of Ravnica has 259 cards while Ravnica Allegiance has 264. In theory that could just mean that the second set has an extra basic land cycle, but I don't know why that would be necessary, especially with Ravnica sets traditionally being so parallel. If DFCs in the second set primarily replaced cards that would have been in the set anyway but had to add a few extra cards since DFCs skew upwards in rarity, that might explain it. Regardless of whether DFCs are present or not, I think that they'll hold off on split cards until the third set, one because they would be perfect to show guilds working together against Bolas, and two because the designers seem to not want more than five mechanics in a single set nowadays. In theory the split cards could be aftermath cards as the ultimate combination of Ravnica mechanics with Bolas mechanics, but they may instead choose to lean on other mechanics such as afflict or cycling to show Bolas's side of the conflict.
Also, also: I think that the first set might be a -1/-1 counter set. Ravnica sets have always had to be +1/+1 counter sets to accommodate the Simic back when they were all drafted together, but now that they're drafted separately the first set could in theory be a -1/-1 counter set while the second set would be +1/+1 counters. -1/-1 counters would fit the flavor of the Golgari very well and could potentially see some use from the Dimir as well, though in all likelihood only the Golgari would have them directly involved in their named mechanic. Not being able to use +1/+1 counters might hurt the design space for the Selesnya a little bit, but they can just go all-in on tokens again and it should be fine. I also wouldn't mind seeing either a renamed ninjitsu or ninjitsu variant, or some sort of morph variant, for the Dimir since I think either of those would fit their flavor much better than mill would. If they do go with mill again they better actually give it the mechanic and not pull the guild in two directions by having both mill and evasive creatures which contribute to two completely separate win conditions.
We'll see what happens, but hopefully they do something interesting with the mechanics.
A Renamed Ninjistu ability for Dimir would be EXTREMELY appropriate, honestly. Nice catch.
Since we are returning to Ravnica a third time, it made me think that a whole new mechanic for every guild would probably be too much while choosing which one of the guilds 2 mechanics, would be hard to do because you would probably annoy a lot of people by choosing a mechanic for a guild they didn't want.
What if every guild had cards that let you choose either of the 2 mechanics from the sets.
Orzhov made you choose between Haunt or Extort
Golgari made you choose between Dredge or Scavenge
Dimir made you choose between Transmute or Cipher, and so on.
Would that be too weird and create less identity for the guilds or what you like something like this?
Yes, because putting ten mechanics in a set isn't confusing at all.
Well, when those mechanics are more or less relegated to a specific colour pair it isn't so bad as, say, the cluster**** of mechanics in Time Spiral.
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'buster
HR Analyst. Gamer. Activist | Fearless, and forthright | Aggro-control is a mindset. Elspeth and Jhoira rock my world.
A Renamed Ninjistu ability for Dimir would be EXTREMELY appropriate, honestly. Nice catch.
I think a Prowl-like mechanic would work better. It wouldn't be tribal, it would just care that a creature you control dealt combat damage to an opponent that turn. I like the name Infiltrate, myself. Furthermore, some cards could care if you cast them for their Infiltrate cost, much like Surge.
Or the mechanic could be like a mixture of Ninjutsu and Prowl, where you bounce an attacking creature to cast a spell for cheaper, almost like an escape trick. Then the Dimir get a bunch of creatures with ETB or LTB triggers to help support the mechanic, including creatures with the keyword. Guile or Devious sound like good prospective names.
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
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.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
I really hope we get a straight up mill mechanic for Dimir. Something like Szadek where a creature deals damage to players as mill could work. They keep almost doing mill for Dimir, then chickening out and ending up with a mechanic with development problems. I actually love both transmute and cipher as mechanics, but the developers were obviously scared of the latter and it ended up mostly on unplayable garbage. So this time let's get all mill instead of half-mill half something else.
Since we are returning to Ravnica a third time, it made me think that a whole new mechanic for every guild would probably be too much while choosing which one of the guilds 2 mechanics, would be hard to do because you would probably annoy a lot of people by choosing a mechanic for a guild they didn't want.
What if every guild had cards that let you choose either of the 2 mechanics from the sets.
Orzhov made you choose between Haunt or Extort
Golgari made you choose between Dredge or Scavenge
Dimir made you choose between Transmute or Cipher, and so on.
Would that be too weird and create less identity for the guilds or what you like something like this?
Yes, because putting ten mechanics in a set isn't confusing at all.
Well, when those mechanics are more or less relegated to a specific colour pair it isn't so bad as, say, the cluster**** of mechanics in Time Spiral.
It's just as bad as Time Spiral, actually.
Let's see, TS had:
Shadow
Suspend
Flashback
Split Second
Echo
Flanking
Morph
Madness
Buyback
and
Storm
Ten mechanics.
Putting both the mechanics from the original block and from RTR in the next Ravnica block would mean we would end up with 10+ mechanics in the set, which would be just as confusing as time spiral. We would likely end up with eleven, because it is quite likely that we will get split cards as well. This is more than twice what the current MTG designers would want to put in a standard legal set. No, we can expect five, possibly six mechanics. One for each guild, plus possibly split cards.
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It's about time for the reserved list to die, for the sake of Vintage and Legacy (And Commander).
Since we are returning to Ravnica a third time, it made me think that a whole new mechanic for every guild would probably be too much while choosing which one of the guilds 2 mechanics, would be hard to do because you would probably annoy a lot of people by choosing a mechanic for a guild they didn't want.
What if every guild had cards that let you choose either of the 2 mechanics from the sets.
Orzhov made you choose between Haunt or Extort
Golgari made you choose between Dredge or Scavenge
Dimir made you choose between Transmute or Cipher, and so on.
Would that be too weird and create less identity for the guilds or what you like something like this?
Yes, because putting ten mechanics in a set isn't confusing at all.
Well, when those mechanics are more or less relegated to a specific colour pair it isn't so bad as, say, the cluster**** of mechanics in Time Spiral.
It's just as bad as Time Spiral, actually.
Let's see, TS had:
Shadow
Suspend
Flashback
Split Second
Echo
Flanking
Morph
Madness
Buyback
and
Storm
Ten mechanics.
Putting both the mechanics from the original block and from RTR in the next Ravnica block would mean we would end up with 10+ mechanics in the set, which would be just as confusing as time spiral. We would likely end up with eleven, because it is quite likely that we will get split cards as well. This is more than twice what the current MTG designers would want to put in a standard legal set. No, we can expect five, possibly six mechanics. One for each guild, plus possibly split cards.
Actually Time Spiral had more if you count Planar Chaos (Vanishing) and those new ones in Future Sight (Absorb et al).
'buster
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'buster
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I really hope we get a straight up mill mechanic for Dimir. Something like Szadek where a creature deals damage to players as mill could work. They keep almost doing mill for Dimir, then chickening out and ending up with a mechanic with development problems. I actually love both transmute and cipher as mechanics, but the developers were obviously scared of the latter and it ended up mostly on unplayable garbage. So this time let's get all mill instead of half-mill half something else.
You mean ingest? While that works in theory, it's pretty rough in practice.
Since we are returning to Ravnica a third time, it made me think that a whole new mechanic for every guild would probably be too much while choosing which one of the guilds 2 mechanics, would be hard to do because you would probably annoy a lot of people by choosing a mechanic for a guild they didn't want.
What if every guild had cards that let you choose either of the 2 mechanics from the sets.
Orzhov made you choose between Haunt or Extort
Golgari made you choose between Dredge or Scavenge
Dimir made you choose between Transmute or Cipher, and so on.
Would that be too weird and create less identity for the guilds or what you like something like this?
Yes, because putting ten mechanics in a set isn't confusing at all.
Well, when those mechanics are more or less relegated to a specific colour pair it isn't so bad as, say, the cluster**** of mechanics in Time Spiral.
It's just as bad as Time Spiral, actually.
Let's see, TS had:
Shadow
Suspend
Flashback
Split Second
Echo
Flanking
Morph
Madness
Buyback
and
Storm
Ten mechanics.
Putting both the mechanics from the original block and from RTR in the next Ravnica block would mean we would end up with 10+ mechanics in the set, which would be just as confusing as time spiral. We would likely end up with eleven, because it is quite likely that we will get split cards as well. This is more than twice what the current MTG designers would want to put in a standard legal set. No, we can expect five, possibly six mechanics. One for each guild, plus possibly split cards.
Actually Time Spiral had more if you count Planar Chaos (Vanishing) and those new ones in Future Sight (Absorb et al).
'buster
Except we can't, if we do, we'd need to count the second and third set in the upcoming revisit to Ravnica as well, and with OP's suggestion that means 20+ mechanics, which is just not reasonable at all. We can only count one set at a time rather than a whole block, and even then 10+ mechanics is way to much and very unreasonable. We will get one new mechanic for each guild. It *is* possible that one of the mechanics is a returning one, but if it is, it will not be from a previous visit to Ravnica.
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It's about time for the reserved list to die, for the sake of Vintage and Legacy (And Commander).
I really hope we get a straight up mill mechanic for Dimir. Something like Szadek where a creature deals damage to players as mill could work. They keep almost doing mill for Dimir, then chickening out and ending up with a mechanic with development problems. I actually love both transmute and cipher as mechanics, but the developers were obviously scared of the latter and it ended up mostly on unplayable garbage. So this time let's get all mill instead of half-mill half something else.
You mean ingest? While that works in theory, it's pretty rough in practice.
No, not like injest. I meant a template similar to Szadek, Lord of Secrets or infect, in which damage to players is replaced by the same amount of mill. I'm just giving a random example though. I would just be disappointed if the Dimir faction were split down the middle again where it has a mechanic like cipher or transmute and a disconnected mill subtheme.
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Since we are returning to Ravnica a third time, it made me think that a whole new mechanic for every guild would probably be too much while choosing which one of the guilds 2 mechanics, would be hard to do because you would probably annoy a lot of people by choosing a mechanic for a guild they didn't want.
What if every guild had cards that let you choose either of the 2 mechanics from the sets.
Orzhov made you choose between Haunt or Extort
Golgari made you choose between Dredge or Scavenge
Dimir made you choose between Transmute or Cipher, and so on.
Would that be too weird and create less identity for the guilds or what you like something like this?
If anything, I'm thinking we are going to get entirely new, but similar mechanics. Golgari will do something from the GY, Simic will do something that manipulates creatures/counters in some way, boros will want to build an army, etc.
i like transmute but it is also a 9 apparently.
Azorius - Forecast, Detain
Dimir - Transmute, Cipher
Rakdos - Hellbent, Unleash
Gruul - Bloodthist, Bloodrush
Selesnya - Convoke, Populate
Orzhov - Haunt, Extort
Izzet - Replicate, Overload
Golgari - Dredge, Scavenge
Boros - Radiance, Battalion
Simic - Graft, Evolve
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.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
I think Dimir and Boros especially need some help. Cause Ravnica has overdefined their color pairs and not for the better in my book.
You got consider design space, fan feedback, flavor, and effectiveness. I guess Selesyna does have an embarrassment of riches ie both its mechanics worked pretty well. But yeah new mechanics besides they are going to have Guild Decks so players will be presumably be able to grab the greatest hits in their color pairs (I don't think those decks are standard legal so hopefully Doubling Season gets a goddamn reprint).
Detain, I'm surprised hasn't been made evergreen as it feels like the kind of mechanic that works well enough to be used but isn't exciting enough to headline a set, much like Fight.
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.
Yes, because putting ten mechanics in a set isn't confusing at all.
---
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Pascite draconem, evolvite aut morimini.
I wouldn't be surprised if the second set had a DFC mechanic for each guild. Simic could get meld, obviously. Orzhov could have a death trigger that returns creatures to the battlefield transformed as an aura, essentially haunt done right. Azorius could have spells that put themselves onto the battlefield transformed as enchantments if you pay a higher cost, since Azorius has been almost given an enchantment mechanic before (Constellation under a different name in RTR) for the law flavor and this would play well in control decks as well. Rakdos could have creatures where you can choose to have them enter the battlefield transformed, with back side being larger or more powerful but with a drawback, as a way to represent demonic forms of creatures and as a callback to unleash. Gruul could have a monstrosity variant similar to the Eldritch Moon werewolves or lands that transform into creatures as a new take on awaken.
Also worth noting: Guilds of Ravnica has 259 cards while Ravnica Allegiance has 264. In theory that could just mean that the second set has an extra basic land cycle, but I don't know why that would be necessary, especially with Ravnica sets traditionally being so parallel. If DFCs in the second set primarily replaced cards that would have been in the set anyway but had to add a few extra cards since DFCs skew upwards in rarity, that might explain it. Regardless of whether DFCs are present or not, I think that they'll hold off on split cards until the third set, one because they would be perfect to show guilds working together against Bolas, and two because the designers seem to not want more than five mechanics in a single set nowadays. In theory the split cards could be aftermath cards as the ultimate combination of Ravnica mechanics with Bolas mechanics, but they may instead choose to lean on other mechanics such as afflict or cycling to show Bolas's side of the conflict.
Also, also: I think that the first set might be a -1/-1 counter set. Ravnica sets have always had to be +1/+1 counter sets to accommodate the Simic back when they were all drafted together, but now that they're drafted separately the first set could in theory be a -1/-1 counter set while the second set would be +1/+1 counters. -1/-1 counters would fit the flavor of the Golgari very well and could potentially see some use from the Dimir as well, though in all likelihood only the Golgari would have them directly involved in their named mechanic. Not being able to use +1/+1 counters might hurt the design space for the Selesnya a little bit, but they can just go all-in on tokens again and it should be fine. I also wouldn't mind seeing either a renamed ninjitsu or ninjitsu variant, or some sort of morph variant, for the Dimir since I think either of those would fit their flavor much better than mill would. If they do go with mill again they better actually give it the mechanic and not pull the guild in two directions by having both mill and evasive creatures which contribute to two completely separate win conditions.
We'll see what happens, but hopefully they do something interesting with the mechanics.
I expect to see a pushed Bolas at minimum. I say Jace but he already has a pushed card.
It could also be lands if they want to make sure you get a pair...and don't want to finish the pair in the set after Ravnica: Infinity War.
A Renamed Ninjistu ability for Dimir would be EXTREMELY appropriate, honestly. Nice catch.
Well, when those mechanics are more or less relegated to a specific colour pair it isn't so bad as, say, the cluster**** of mechanics in Time Spiral.
HR Analyst. Gamer. Activist | Fearless, and forthright | Aggro-control is a mindset.
Elspeth and Jhoira rock my world.
I think a Prowl-like mechanic would work better. It wouldn't be tribal, it would just care that a creature you control dealt combat damage to an opponent that turn. I like the name Infiltrate, myself. Furthermore, some cards could care if you cast them for their Infiltrate cost, much like Surge.
Or the mechanic could be like a mixture of Ninjutsu and Prowl, where you bounce an attacking creature to cast a spell for cheaper, almost like an escape trick. Then the Dimir get a bunch of creatures with ETB or LTB triggers to help support the mechanic, including creatures with the keyword. Guile or Devious sound like good prospective names.
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.
It's just as bad as Time Spiral, actually.
Let's see, TS had:
Shadow
Suspend
Flashback
Split Second
Echo
Flanking
Morph
Madness
Buyback
and
Storm
Ten mechanics.
Putting both the mechanics from the original block and from RTR in the next Ravnica block would mean we would end up with 10+ mechanics in the set, which would be just as confusing as time spiral. We would likely end up with eleven, because it is quite likely that we will get split cards as well. This is more than twice what the current MTG designers would want to put in a standard legal set. No, we can expect five, possibly six mechanics. One for each guild, plus possibly split cards.
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Numquam evolutioni obstes. Solum conculceris.
Pascite draconem, evolvite aut morimini.
Actually Time Spiral had more if you count Planar Chaos (Vanishing) and those new ones in Future Sight (Absorb et al).
'buster
HR Analyst. Gamer. Activist | Fearless, and forthright | Aggro-control is a mindset.
Elspeth and Jhoira rock my world.
You mean ingest? While that works in theory, it's pretty rough in practice.
Except we can't, if we do, we'd need to count the second and third set in the upcoming revisit to Ravnica as well, and with OP's suggestion that means 20+ mechanics, which is just not reasonable at all. We can only count one set at a time rather than a whole block, and even then 10+ mechanics is way to much and very unreasonable. We will get one new mechanic for each guild. It *is* possible that one of the mechanics is a returning one, but if it is, it will not be from a previous visit to Ravnica.
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Numquam evolutioni obstes. Solum conculceris.
Pascite draconem, evolvite aut morimini.
No, not like injest. I meant a template similar to Szadek, Lord of Secrets or infect, in which damage to players is replaced by the same amount of mill. I'm just giving a random example though. I would just be disappointed if the Dimir faction were split down the middle again where it has a mechanic like cipher or transmute and a disconnected mill subtheme.