First you need Pyromancer Ascension and any other quest with two or more quest counters on it.
Then you need Opalescence.
That way, you can move the quest counters around with Leech Bonder or Fate Transfer.
If you want to keep it in Izzet, then instead of Opalescence, you can use Mycosynth Lattice along with Toymaker, Karn, Silver Golem, or March of the Machines, the last of which will destroy all lands, so I wouldn't recommend it if you actually intend on copying anything with the Ascension.
Attack and Defend?
Divide and Conquer?
Stand and Fight?
Rock and Roll?
Buy and Sell?
Show and Tell? (can they even do this one? It would be different from Show and Tell, right?)
Peanut Butter and Jelly?
Cheese and Crackers?
Milk and Honey?
Coffee and Cream?
Tea and Biscuits?
Chicken and Waffles?
Fish and Chips?
Name/number crunch thread has determined there are 15 split cards. Beck//Call is alphabetically the first, and Wear//Tear is alphabetically the last.
Toil//Trouble tells us that allied guilds go in normal color order. Wear//Tear tells us that enemy guilds also go in normal color order here, contra Apocalypse.
This gives us color pairs for uncommon split cards:
Black//Red (Toil//Trouble)
Red//Green
Green//White
White//Blue
Blue//Black
Black//Green
Green//Blue
Blue//Red
Red//White (Wear//Tear)
White//Black
The rare split cards are a bit odd: shards with one enemy pair and one allied pair, with the enemy pair first. Thus we will have:
Well, given this info, and Pack Rat, and Ogre Slumlord, I would love it if the Black//Green one was Mice//Men.
If Shock wasn't already a card (and Wear//Tear wasn't already spoiled), I would've wanted the Red//White one to be Shock//Awe.
As for what some of the cards do, I can see Boros//Selesnya maybe making an instant speed angel, and then Selesnya saying Populate, then Populate, then Populate. (depends on cost, of course)
I can also see Golgari//Gruul having Golgari being some instant speed buff, and Gruul making one of your creatures fight all creatures an opponent controls or something.
However, anything in your packs that don't have the DM set symbols won't be playable. That includes the shocklands (which will have RTR and GC symbols). Source:
I haven't seen this mentioned yet so had to bring it up.
Except that you are opening RTR and GTC boosters, so the shocks are completely legal within the prerelease. The rules say "only cards from the expansions of the boosters opened," which is a requirement the shocks do fulfill. The RTR and GTC boosters may be specialized guild boosters, but for all intents and purposes, yes, this is indeed a RTR/GTC/DGM prerelease.
I facepalmed, until I saw the other two. Aurelia and Obzedat, with two Boros Keyrunes and one Orzhov.
Still ended up going 2-2, got murdered by one Boros deck, while in another round against BUG, I would've won, if he hadn't topdecked the Dimir Mind Control on my Extort guy, then extorted me with another spell. He made it out with 1 life.
A lot of it depends on Dimir. I don't think Simic is going to have much of a milling strategy. The part that is going to make the archetype hard to draft is that RTR is going to be the first pack opened. There aren't any cards that would immediately put you into a mill strategy from RTR. It is more of something that you fall into.
Luckily, RTR isn't going to be the first pack opened. The draft format will be Sinker-GTC-RTR, so you'll get to see what Dimir you open before deciding to go all in on Chronic Floodings, Codex Shredders, and especially Psychic Spirals.
I've used Codex Shredder and Catacomb Slug though. The former helped kill someone when I dropped it right after Deathrite Shaman. About fifteen turns and eleven instants and sorceries (Darn you Dramatic Rescue) later, the Shredder and Shaman dealt the last two points of damage.
As for the slug, I maindecked three (3!) and they clogged up boards all day until Korozda Guildmage turned them into Saprolings. It was great.
Just my personal experience, but I won a game in my last draft completely off the back of this guy and an early Codex Shredder. It was pretty hilarious.
Now I'm just looking forward to getting the die. I really hope that the 20 is the guild symbol. That would make my day.
All I need to know is what the other 14 cards in the prerelease guild packs are. Are they randomized or are they preselected? I could see them putting say, each guild's charm, guildmage, and gate in the pack. If that's the case, then Selesnya Charm, and hopefully any additional copies you pull do great things in Limited. Make Knight tokens to stem damage from Rakdos or save it for every other guild's late game bombs, most of which can be exiled. My only worry for Selesnya is the lack of repeatable Populate, being on the guildmage, a rare enchantment, and Trostani herself (theirselves?), who as a mythic, would be hard to find, especially with only five chances to get her.
Other than that, I've been voting Selesnya since the beginning, and am quite content with the card pool presented.
Honestly, I love Selesnya. The guildmage is just hilarious too. As long as Selesnya lands an early centaur token through whatever means, Rakdos can't push too easily, unless they want to use Augur Spree. Centaur Healer, I think, does a good job of getting Selesnya to mid-late game, which is where they can hopefully stabilize better behind masses of tokens.
Why would the one-drop need to be held to an absurd constraint such as 'this cannot be better than Goblin Guide'? Furthermore, one would think taht being unable to block should be considered a major constraint late game!
Major constraint late game? If the eventual Rakdos one-drop is any better than Goblin Guide, you will never reach late game. Ever. Your opponent would be long dead by then.
Seeing how pushed these seem at the moment, I almost want to see a 1/1 with sac to shock, or maybe 1 damage to target creature and its controller loses a life. I honestly think sac to shock isn't that bad because damage doesn't stack, so it will be dealing 2 damage in one packet. Mogg Fanatic was capable of taking down two x/1s, which shock can't do.
For Izzet, I can only think of Careful Study and Faithless Looting, so ETB draw two, discard two? Or even ETB draw one, discard one and sac to discard one, draw one, like Drowned Rusalka so you can break even with no cards in hand or fuel flashback.
Golgari, I want to see a 1/1 tap for one of any color, lose 1 life. Is that hoping for too much?
Then you need Opalescence.
That way, you can move the quest counters around with Leech Bonder or Fate Transfer.
If you want to keep it in Izzet, then instead of Opalescence, you can use Mycosynth Lattice along with Toymaker, Karn, Silver Golem, or March of the Machines, the last of which will destroy all lands, so I wouldn't recommend it if you actually intend on copying anything with the Ascension.
Divide and Conquer?
Stand and Fight?
Rock and Roll?
Buy and Sell?
Show and Tell? (can they even do this one? It would be different from Show and Tell, right?)
Peanut Butter and Jelly?
Cheese and Crackers?
Milk and Honey?
Coffee and Cream?
Tea and Biscuits?
Chicken and Waffles?
Fish and Chips?
Well, given this info, and Pack Rat, and Ogre Slumlord, I would love it if the Black//Green one was Mice//Men.
If Shock wasn't already a card (and Wear//Tear wasn't already spoiled), I would've wanted the Red//White one to be Shock//Awe.
As for what some of the cards do, I can see Boros//Selesnya maybe making an instant speed angel, and then Selesnya saying Populate, then Populate, then Populate. (depends on cost, of course)
I can also see Golgari//Gruul having Golgari being some instant speed buff, and Gruul making one of your creatures fight all creatures an opponent controls or something.
Except that you are opening RTR and GTC boosters, so the shocks are completely legal within the prerelease. The rules say "only cards from the expansions of the boosters opened," which is a requirement the shocks do fulfill. The RTR and GTC boosters may be specialized guild boosters, but for all intents and purposes, yes, this is indeed a RTR/GTC/DGM prerelease.
Looked at my first 4 packs, Gyre Sage, Unexpected Results, Consuming Aberration, and Luminate Primordial.
I facepalmed, until I saw the other two. Aurelia and Obzedat, with two Boros Keyrunes and one Orzhov.
Still ended up going 2-2, got murdered by one Boros deck, while in another round against BUG, I would've won, if he hadn't topdecked the Dimir Mind Control on my Extort guy, then extorted me with another spell. He made it out with 1 life.
Luckily, RTR isn't going to be the first pack opened. The draft format will be Sinker-GTC-RTR, so you'll get to see what Dimir you open before deciding to go all in on Chronic Floodings, Codex Shredders, and especially Psychic Spirals.
That's what Seedborn Muse is for. Urban Burgeoning is just legitimately bad. I have also not seen Chronic Flooding put to any use.
I've used Codex Shredder and Catacomb Slug though. The former helped kill someone when I dropped it right after Deathrite Shaman. About fifteen turns and eleven instants and sorceries (Darn you Dramatic Rescue) later, the Shredder and Shaman dealt the last two points of damage.
As for the slug, I maindecked three (3!) and they clogged up boards all day until Korozda Guildmage turned them into Saprolings. It was great.
Just my personal experience, but I won a game in my last draft completely off the back of this guy and an early Codex Shredder. It was pretty hilarious.
Sigh. I just traded Bonfire for a foil Japanese Primeval Titan too.
Time to swing with some Scarecrow Dragons to make Scarecrow Dragons.
All I need to know is what the other 14 cards in the prerelease guild packs are. Are they randomized or are they preselected? I could see them putting say, each guild's charm, guildmage, and gate in the pack. If that's the case, then Selesnya Charm, and hopefully any additional copies you pull do great things in Limited. Make Knight tokens to stem damage from Rakdos or save it for every other guild's late game bombs, most of which can be exiled. My only worry for Selesnya is the lack of repeatable Populate, being on the guildmage, a rare enchantment, and Trostani herself (theirselves?), who as a mythic, would be hard to find, especially with only five chances to get her.
Other than that, I've been voting Selesnya since the beginning, and am quite content with the card pool presented.
This card is cool and pretty much says no to counterspells.
Major constraint late game? If the eventual Rakdos one-drop is any better than Goblin Guide, you will never reach late game. Ever. Your opponent would be long dead by then.
Seeing how pushed these seem at the moment, I almost want to see a 1/1 with sac to shock, or maybe 1 damage to target creature and its controller loses a life. I honestly think sac to shock isn't that bad because damage doesn't stack, so it will be dealing 2 damage in one packet. Mogg Fanatic was capable of taking down two x/1s, which shock can't do.
For Izzet, I can only think of Careful Study and Faithless Looting, so ETB draw two, discard two? Or even ETB draw one, discard one and sac to discard one, draw one, like Drowned Rusalka so you can break even with no cards in hand or fuel flashback.
Golgari, I want to see a 1/1 tap for one of any color, lose 1 life. Is that hoping for too much?