Guilds of Ravnica: Spoilers and Speculation
Spoilers, Rumors, and Speculation forum
Posted on Aug. 27, 2018, 12:04 p.m. by landofMordor
It's spoiler season!
There have been a few recent threads talking about new cards we might see in the new Guilds of Ravnica, but there's no central location yet.
So, enjoy: please discuss official spoilers as they become available, and until then, throw your hat in the ring for characters/cards/mechanics you think we'll see!
Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor says... #2
Holy crap! Dimir good hooked up today: Lazav, Doom Whisperer, Mission Briefing, and Nightveil Predator are all fantastic! This is making me want to go with the Dimir box over Golgari for the pre-release
New Aurelia isn't anything flashy but she is pretty solid and synergizes very well with Mentor. Most of the creatures she buffs can then in turn mentor her.
September 13, 2018 8:02 p.m.
Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor says... #3
Whoah...these seem pushed
and not sure how good this will be, but it is sure interesting:
And here's Trostani. Probably not as good as Trostani, Selesnya's Voice, but she still seems interesting.
Also, I haven't seen them mentioned much here, but the cycle of 2-2 creatures (i.e. ) look pretty powerful.
So after one week of spoilers and half of the set spoiled, I gotta say, this set is looking pretty awesome. Most of the rares and all of the mythics (besides the Phoenix) look great in limited. Likewise, there seems to be an ample amount of power at the uncommon level. Every mechanic seems to be supported well so far. Lastly, commander got some cool new goodies and important reprints! Lets hope that the next half of the set keeps up the trend.
September 14, 2018 11:06 a.m.
Bleh, that Trostani's boring. At least Selesnya has more interesting options than a certain guild I know.
Omnispell Adept looks sweet. I wonder what I can do with it... uses it to cast Obliterate.
September 14, 2018 11:21 a.m.
Am I the only one hoping we get a new Krenko, Mob Boss?
September 14, 2018 11:22 a.m.
Those of you who check for spoilers on Scryfall have already seen all these I suspect. But for those who haven't, I LOVE their titles for the foreign spoilers that don't yet have official English titles!
- One Beefy Boi
- Elfcoil Engine
- Good Doggo Rider
- Your Centaur Valentine
- AAA Video Game Man
- Air Traffic Control Lizard
- Aurelia, with the Good Hair
:-D
September 14, 2018 11:24 a.m.
AgentGreen says... #7
Are we going to see more walkers or are we only going to be left with Ral and Vraska?
September 14, 2018 12:13 p.m.
I'm noticing that the Guildmages now have a tap requirement for their abilities. Older Guildmages tended toward abilities that were expensive, but could eat up all kinds of unused mana. Now, they just seem expensive. Am I expecting too much from this cycle? Will the tapping actually make a difference?
September 14, 2018 9:15 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #9
saj0219, the game has been around for twenty-five years, so why now are WotC messing with something that is not broken? I have no problem with black dealing damage to creatures (such as through Tendrils of Corruption), because creatures cannot lose life, but, if it is affecting only a player, it should always be life loss.
Also, after Dominaria, WotC printed black cards in Battlebond and Core Set 2019 that caused life loss, so I am hoping that black cards that deal damage shall be only an occasional thing.
I also must say that I am slightly disappointed with the new Aurelia; I understand that she needs to feel like the same character who was seen in the Return to Ravnica block, but the Boros guild (and red/white in general) really needs to have an identity beyond combat.
On a more positive note, another reprint of Skyknight Legionnaire, again with new artwork, is nice, because I now can have four copies of it in my red/white deck with three different images. Even better is Swiftblade Vindicator, which shall definitely be a replacement for Boros Swiftblade; it may have lower toughness, but, in exchange for that, and at the exact same mana cost, it has vigilance and trample, which shall make it a deadly force when enchanted with Scourge of the Nobilis or with a Balefire Liege on the battlefield. Being a rare means that it will likely be expensive to purchase as a single, but I doubt that it will be prohibitively expensive.
Also, why does the text on book devourer say "you may discard all the cards in your hand" rather than "you may discard your hand?" Has not WotC been making certain phrases shorter (i.e., "die" or "exile")?
Even further, I just noticed that, thus far, the Dimir guild has only a single counterspell, and it is mono-blue, so they currently have no black/blue counterpsell, which seems to be ridiculous, to me, considering that the Izzet has a red/blue counterspell in Ionize, and this would have been a great opportunity for the Dimir to have a similar card, such as a reprint of Undermine or Countersquall (also, it may not be a counterspell, but a reprint of Recoil would have been very nice, as well).
September 15, 2018 1:15 a.m.
seshiro_of_the_orochi says... #10
Phaetion: now that's kind of cute. I mean, in a lethal way ;D
September 15, 2018 1:31 a.m.
DemonDragonJ I agree about the damage / life loss scenario. I'm obviously a traditionalist and fear change but it's part of what makes black black for me.
On the "Book Devourer" front, I thought the same, looks a bit clunky and awkward as text goes and I thought why, when Forgotten Creation just says 'your hand'...'til I looked it up. And it doesn't. So, I learned something today lol.
September 15, 2018 5:19 a.m.
AgentGreen I think it'll just be those two.
There appears to be a cycle of mythics for the guild leaders, a mythic cycle of mono cards (Dream Eater, Doom Whisperer) and a guild cycle of mythics (Underrealm Lich, March of the Multitudes). There's normally about 15/16 mythics in a set I believe.
Having said that, the guilds aren't equally represented since Doom Whisperer and Dream Eater are both Dimir, so maybe there'll be a bunch more...
September 15, 2018 7:24 a.m.
AgentGreen and BS-T,
Yeah, ignoring the Masterpieces and Planeswalker Deck ones, there are only two in GRN (source).
September 15, 2018 8:30 a.m. Edited.
BS-T and DemonDragonJ The "all the cards in your hand" discard instead of simply "Discard your hand" likely come from needing the paper game to match the digitally programmed game. The first wording should allow the program to count the number of cars discarded when necessary ("then draw that many"), and the second wording would be used when the number of cards discarded is irrelevant.
September 15, 2018 9:13 a.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #15
legendofa, this is not the first time that the paper game has needed to accommodate the digital game; the paper game existed first, so it should not be forced to accommodate a newer version of the game.
September 15, 2018 9:17 a.m.
Hej you guys, is there any chance to get Enhanced Surveillance and Dimir Spybug for the Deckbuilder? Cause i would love to start brewing with those.
September 15, 2018 2:11 p.m.
landofMordor says... #17
legendofa I also noticed the change in this cycle of Guildmage. I think the tap abilities on on average more powerful than the old abilities, but I think that's a sacrifice for power and versatility over raw mana-sinkiness.
clayperce those were literally the best things I'd ever seen in my life. "Aurelia, with the good hair" will be the only way I can ever refer to her from now on.
September 17, 2018 7:08 a.m.
clayperce: If I ever draft GRN, for just one time, I want to just say "Here's One Beefy Boi coming right up!" (or something like that) as I go to combat and attack with it.
September 17, 2018 7:52 a.m.
landofMordor says... #19
Flalafell we're not the experts here, but you can toggle "Skip Validation" in the editing page for now, because it usually takes the admins a couple weeks to get the entire set uploaded.
September 17, 2018 8:27 a.m.
The "all the cards in your hand" discard instead of simply "Discard your hand" likely come from needing the paper game to match the digitally programmed game. The first wording should allow the program to count the number of cars discarded when necessary..." argument is not correct.
The card can say whatever it wants, and the game can be programmed however they want. The card One with Nothing can be programed on resolution to display a picture of a potato instead of what it says on the card.
The real reason is templating and human understanding - compare Nicol Bolas and Forgotten Creation or the new card. If a card cares in any way about the number of cards discarded via the effect, it will be written out "discard all the cards in your hand". If the card that made you discard your hand does not care about how many you discard, the text is shorter ie One with Nothing.
September 17, 2018 9:14 a.m.
clayperce, you are right about Scryfall and their preview names:
Air traffic control lizard is a good punk band name.
September 17, 2018 10:48 a.m.
Hey so they revealed a new card called Divine Visitation and I'm wondering how it'll work with Doubling Season.
Like if I get a 1/1 bird token, would it be doubled by Doubling Season then replaced by Divine Visitation then doubled by Doubling Season again for four angels, or would I replace the tokens with angels and then doubled?
September 17, 2018 10:49 a.m.
MindAblaze says... #23
The bird is never created due to Visitation saying “instead” (replacement effect.) you would always get two angels for each token created with doubling season out.
I have to say I’m in love with that card...
September 17, 2018 10:57 a.m.
Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor says... #25
So we got our last three mythics today. One is bad (Thousand Year Storm), one is...interesting (Chance at Glory), and the other looks super fun for EDH and makes March of the Multitudes even more powerful in GRN (Divine Visitation).
I feel that Chance at Glory will be very strong in the limited environment, but probably fall short outside of that.
Also, I swear that they are pushing Dimir sooo hard this set. Note that you can target lands with this.
September 17, 2018 11:53 a.m.
landofMordor says... #26
To be fair, Dimir needs some love. Cipher and Transmute were terrible, and it's nice to see UB branching away from their repetitive "mill and profit" themes.
Unmoored Ego will probably be a worse Extirpate/Surgical Extraction in most cases except Tron lands, in which case there might still be better options, especially since it won't affect lands already played.
September 17, 2018 noon Edited.
Not that I think it's worth doing (probably), but Unmoored Ego could swipe all the copies of a basic land from a number of Modern decks...
September 17, 2018 12:09 p.m.
AgentGreen says... #28
saj0219 It says "up to 4"
It's an interesting card to say the least. It will utterly destroy Tron in modern.
In standard you can fubar their entire mana base for the rest of the game. I am quite a fan of this card.
Question is; would you use in on non-basics?
September 17, 2018 12:24 p.m.
AgentGreen: it does say "up to 4," but there are definitely some modern decks out there that run fewer than 4 of a single basic. Is it worth it to do? Probably not. But is it possible? It sure is :) Drop a blood moon and then steal all the basics of a specific color (assuming they run 4 or fewer)... what fun!
September 17, 2018 1:54 p.m.
AgentGreen says... #30
saj0219 I can see it being used against Tron lands.
But in Standard? Only 3 color decks would hurt from this. Two color decks will be able to shrug it off
September 17, 2018 3:37 p.m.
Has anyone seen the other new Dimir legendary? Cause guess what? It's going to make people cry in edh
September 17, 2018 4:07 p.m.
dbpunk: It's not. She shuffles away the second she connects. You have to do some setting her up to do some work.
September 17, 2018 4:32 p.m.
Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor says... #33
cough cough Crystal Shard, Erratic Portal, Strionic Resonator cough cough, but seriously though I think I'll just stop building my Yuriko deck right now. THIS is my kind of commander.
The best part is you can just drop her back into the command zone. Plus the politics associated with an opponent having 2 hit counters on them is amazing. Do they play a creature or not?
September 17, 2018 4:52 p.m.
Except it is way easier than you think.
A) bouncing is pretty easy to do in UB edh. Especially considering most edhs run either Unsummon or some other 'return' to hand spell or a card like Deadeye Navigator, which would exile her at instant speed.
B) Instant speed sacrifice cards do exist. Having her in the grave is much easier to return than in the library. Especially considering you have access to cards like Phyrexian Reclamation
C) Even if you don't use either of those, you can easily just send her back to the command zone as a replacement for the library trigger in edh if she's your general.
Yes, you have to set up a bit. But all her set up is pretty easy to do over all, especially considering Swiftfoot Boots would probably end up making it not matter when you cast her.
Not to mention Helm of the Host, Sakashima the Impostor and Lazav, the Multifarious will probably be played along side her.
I didn't say invincible, I said some edh players are going to cry.
September 17, 2018 5:02 p.m.
Well, ignore me. I'm really tired right now. :/ She's better than I gave her credit for.
September 17, 2018 5:11 p.m.
LittleBlueHero says... #36
In 1v1 commander I can see her being bonkers.
I want to believe shes plausible in multi player as well but I just think using her is a lot of work to take 1 player out over multiple turns. Its a lot of set up and a lot of investment. Also most combat based win cons are too slow in general for it to ever be really competitive. I still think building her could be fun and different.
Your gameplan becomes incredibly obvious. Granted it doesn't have to be the only win con in the deck.
In standard though... I would run 3 or 4 of her as an alternate win condition just for fun.
September 17, 2018 5:30 p.m.
Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor says... #37
Multiplayer does present an interesting challenge for her for sure, but I don't think it's getting enough hits in with her (there a ample cards that account for that). I think the bigger issue is how telegraphed she is and your opponent's choosing to not play creatures. I think you build her sort of like how you build Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer -> Abilities that give her flash or haste and plenty of counter magic. That way you only commit her when you are ready.
Honestly, you could probably build a near creature-less deck with her. Outside of Deadeye Navigator, Sakashima the Impostor, new Lazav, Dimir Doppelganger, and Phage the Untouchable (for laughs), what else do you really need? The rest could be filled with turtle effects like Propaganda, ramp, card draw, and mass bounce effects.
September 17, 2018 5:55 p.m.
Not profitable or worth the effort, but you can always respond to her trigger ability by bouncing her back to your hand. Much like killing a Young Pyromancer doesn’t stop its ability from resolving, I’d imagine that her ability would resolve once placed on the stack even if she was no longer on the battlefield
September 17, 2018 7:10 p.m.
MindAblaze says... #39
Helm of the Host, Blade of Selves, other copy effects and Mirror Gallery?
September 17, 2018 8:16 p.m.
I hadn't been paying attention to the mythic count, but I remember reading some comment somewhere suggesting we'd seen our last two mythics a few days ago, but... it looks like we got another one:
September 18, 2018 10:27 a.m.
There are 15 mythics in the boosters of the set:
- 5 guildleaders, we know them all
- 5 monocolor mythics, we know them all.
- 5 two color mythics, one per guild, we now know all of them.
This was the final mythic. There are 18 mythics in GRN - 2 extra Planeswalker decks' walkers and the BAB promo Wurm.
Edit: Tajic is here!
September 18, 2018 10:45 a.m. Edited.
AgentGreen says... #42
Mnemomic Betrayl seems like alot of fun to play with in the late game.
September 18, 2018 10:57 a.m.
New Tajic seems interesting, and tbh I'd love to build a deck around him that's kind of creature punishment.
September 18, 2018 11 a.m.
TBH I don't think I like any of the Legends in the set. I'm just not an inspired by them as a commander player.
Can't win 'em all though eh?
September 18, 2018 11:36 a.m.
Like they're interesting and you can build a deck around each of them but not good in all situations for commander. Tbh there are ways to build each of them so that they're good.
September 18, 2018 1:20 p.m.
Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor says... #46
I agree. Etrata seems great just on how unique she is, but for each legend in this set (besides maybe Lazav), there is another legend out there that does the same thing but better. A lot of these feel like "in the 99" type cards.
September 18, 2018 1:37 p.m.
Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor says... #47
Speaking of commander, mono-white and Boros players must be pretty excited about Dawn of Hope. A card draw engine that enables itself.
September 18, 2018 1:39 p.m.
AgentGreen says... #48
Boros got a nice sweeper.
Citywide Bust
Sorcery
Destroy all creatures with toughness 4 or greater.
September 18, 2018 2:02 p.m.
Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor yeah that Hope thing is a little engine
September 18, 2018 3:36 p.m.
Newest infinite combo piece for commander probably. Play it with Sensei's Divining Top and Helm of Awakening for infinite draw until you draw Aetherflux Reservoir then use your storm count with sensei's divining top to wipe out your opponents.
That or if you have enough money on hand you can draw until you get Lion's Eye Diamond and Elixir of Immortality to generate infinite mana and life gain.
Rabid_Wombat says... #1
Not probably Suns_Champion - you are the biggest Boros nerd on the site...and we love ya for it!
September 13, 2018 7:31 p.m.