Ravnica Allegiance: Spoilers and Speculation

Caerwyn says... #1

That is awful - sorry to hear. If I may make a few points:

You should probably not take your LGS’ statement at face value. I would recommend calling a couple different independent stores in your area, as well as in other cities, to verify it is a widespread problem. Having more data will be helpful when you contact Wizards.

So you know, Monday is a holiday in the United States, and support might not be taking any calls. Figured I would point this out so you would not be surprised if no one answers.

It might be prudent to send an email rather than call - that way you are receiving a written response to the issue. Paper trails are nice.

I presume your LGS informed you either by phone or when you showed up, but, if they sent you an email, it is probably worth forwarding that communication to Wizards.

Hopefully this can be sorted out. Be sure to let us know how things go!

January 19, 2019 8:41 a.m.

DemonDragonJ says... #2

Does anyone here find it to be funny that only one of the guilds that has fallen under Bolas's influence shares both of its colors with him, and that each other guild that he is now influencing has one color that he does not have?

January 19, 2019 9:15 a.m.

Coward_Token says... #3

I do find it amusing that Dimir & Rakdos are going to be the good guys

January 19, 2019 9:38 a.m.

Rabid_Wombat says... #4

cdkime Thanks for the tip about Monday being a public holiday and I will send an email along with all the crew from the FLGS to express our concerns.

This really can't be what Wizards wants as our store sells double the amount of product than their non-independent rival. Sadly it's the only independent LGS left in the city - the other got taken over by the franchise store after it went bankrupt last year.

Btw the supplier does have form - they have prevented our FLGS from recieving any KeyForge decks for the past two months! And now they are really turning in the screws with this non delivery of pre-release guild kits/boxes.

I just feel so sorry for the staff who all looked totally devastated yesterday - they work so hard seven days a week and now the writing is on the wall. The retail sector here in Australia is getting hammered by online sales (just like everywhere else) so it really has become the Survival of the Fittest .

Back on topic....Argy that Ooze is a beast! Wish it was Legendary as it would be the perfect Commander for Ooze Tribal :D

January 19, 2019 5:54 p.m.

Boza says... #5

I chose Simic for my prerelease amd I got a total of 4 cards with the adaptv keyword in my prerelease pack. Including the promo, which was Growth-Chamber Guardian . I had good cards in all 5 colors, nothing concetrated, but all my removal was in Rakdos colors, so I built a Jund deck that went 2-2. The only Azorius kit in the prerelease won that day.

January 20, 2019 3:30 a.m.

Argy says... #6

I noticed this today on the Oracle text for Rhythm of the Wild

The last comment is funny and oh so Gruul.

January 20, 2019 4:31 a.m.

Argy says... #7

Rabid_Wombat I played prerelease at the Games Cube in Parramatta (NSW) today, and it is an independent shop, so I think there may be a little bit more to the story.

Although I was talking with staff at the Games Empire (also NSW) and they said that they receive their cards, sleeves, etc. from Good Games, so they are very reliant on what that franchise avails then of.

I know that they did also have prerelease kits, as they have extras for sale on their site.

That does suck-a-billion that you couldn't play prerelease today.

Numbers of people playing were down everywhere this weekend. My LGS owner said he felt that Magic Arena had given a lot of people the option to stay at home and play, so there was little incentive for them to drag themselves out to a brick and mortar shop.

I played Gruul today and went 3-4-0.

I did have some rather spectacularly bad draws, which didn't help.

I was pleased with my card pool.

Most people were playing Gruul. One was playing Rados. There was also an Azorius deck that did well. The LGS owner thought Azorius was the strongest Guild due to its fliers. I'm not sure who won the day.

January 20, 2019 4:54 a.m. Edited.

Argy says... #8

You need to get yourself a Rhythm of the Wild , TypicalTimmy.

☻

January 20, 2019 8:05 a.m.

Caerwyn says... #9

I ended playing Orzhov, and went 2-2-0. I would have won one of the rounds I lost, but for a spectacularly fatal “momentarially forgetting my creatures had deathtouch” error on my part. So it goes.

Overall, I was pleased with my deck. Afterlife was pretty fun, as opponents were very scared to attack into it. I used a lot of cheap creatures with afterlife, some decent removal (including two copies of the spell that causes you to also sacrifice a creature), so I could destroy their bombs and whittle the down one flying damage at a time. It was pretty effective, though not the work of art my Dimir deck had been at the previous prerelease.

My girlfriend also picked Orzhov, but ended up playing Bant - she drew four black cards in all her packs. She had some blue white fliers for the early game and green bombs for the end. She also went 2-2-0.

My other friend that we go with is a Timmy, and it shows. His deck was Rakdos, and he had some great cards. As always, he failed to read the entire text box of a card, which is amusing since he (a) is also a successful attorney, so reads things very carefully in his work life, and (b) this causes him to loose games in every single prerelease. This failure caused him to loose a couple times - twice it cause him to accidentally ping himself for fatal damage. He went 0-4-0 but had a blast, and that is what was important.

Gruul was sold out at our event, though I only played one person who was in Gruul, and they were probably 12-13 years old. Their deck wasn’t bad, but the piloting could have used some work.

Orzhov and Rakdos were the next most popular. My Orzhov mirror had the most fun game of the night, with many mind games regarding afterlife and removal. Sadly, this was a “best of one” round, since the other two games involved me mulliganing down to four, then him mulliganing to four, so did not really count.

I found spectacle to be a tad disappointing, but I do not think that was spectacle’s fault. Since I was playing midrange, I rarely got a discount off spectacle before when I could hard cast the creature. Since others were conservatively attacking me due to not wanting my afterlife creatures to block, spectacle was not used effectively against me either.

Overall, Ravnica proved once again it is the best Plane for sealed. Nothing else compares to the large mix of mechanics, as well as gates and shocks providing access to easy multi-coloured decks.

Hope everyone had fun/will have fun, and I look forward to reading others’ post-mortems!

January 20, 2019 10:54 a.m.

FSims81 says... #10

So Can we start off by talking about how Ill-Gotten Inheritance is a beast of a limited card? By the end of Saturday, almost every deck that could run one, was running at least one.

I did the midnight prerelease, Saturday two-headed giant, and another sealed after the two headed giant.

Midnight prerelease I went with Rakdos and actually opened enough cards to stay in Rakdos. The deck was fast, angry, and caught people offguard. I finished 4-2 and 12th overall out of 52. One of my losses was to one of the top two players who also ran Rakdos.

Two headed giant saw me go 1-2 as my partner got mana-screwed in our two losses. I went Orzhov to her Simic so there was no sharing our color pool. We built strong decks but that doesn't always make a winner.

For the next sealed event I went Gruul but ended up building Jund as my packs did not receive the Gruul memo. I went 3-1 and finished 2nd out of 39 people playing. It is the best I've ever finished at my shop. My only loss was to the undefeated first place winner.

For all the disconnect I had with Guilds of Ravnica, I seemed to be that locked in to Allegiance. Maybe it's just because Rakdos is back but maybe it's that the mechanics seem more straightforward. Adding some mono colored riot or afterlife in with a Rakdos deck doesn't make it too convoluted. I hope everyone else that participated had as much fun with the set.

January 20, 2019 11:58 a.m.

Argy says... #11

cdkime interesting match report.

I almost went Orzhov, due to the Afterlife mechanic.

Wish I had now. Sounds as though it worked exactly like I thought it would, especially with the Creatures who also had Deathtouch.

FSims81 sounds like you had a lot of fun.

Congrats on doing so well.

Whenever I've played 2HG it's only been a one-game match, as it takes so long to build and play.

It must have taken you forever to complete a three-game match.

January 21, 2019 9:44 a.m.

FSims81 says... #12

Thank you Argy, I did have a lot of fun with this prerelease. I enjoy this set a lot and I'm looking forward to some fun drafts with it. To clarify, our 2HG matches were only one game, we just played 3 matches. Yeah, three games in a match for 2HG would absolutely take forever.

January 21, 2019 10:01 a.m.

Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor says... #13

So I did three pre-release events this weekened going Rakdos, Simic, Rakdos. I took 9th out of 38 in the first event. I would say my Rakdos card pool was above average with a decent amount of spectacle cards, but only a few enablers. I was basically saved by how powerful Judith, the Scourge Diva and Ill-Gotten Inheritance are. I found Spectacle to be quite strong and can lead to some pretty crazy play sequences (usually starting off with Dead Revels post combat).

On a more funny note. By the end of the night, everyone hated Orzhov simply because we had something like 8-11 ties occur as the Orzhov decks would just stall until time was called. Piloting and deck building choices were likely more to blame than the guild itself, but Orzhov was always involved. Also, I think I saw 5 immediate scoops to a T3 Rhythm of the Wild (including myself once when I was stuck on lands). That card is way too strong at uncommon for how little enchantment removal is in this set.

The other two pre-releases were train-wrecks. My Simic pool had a total of 3 adapt creatures and 3 of my packs in my second Rakdos pool had 1 or less red or black cards in them. I didn't even pull many payables in the other colors so both times I was forced into some 3 color conglomerate that struggled mightily against synergistic decks.

I did notice a lot of people running into issues with not getting enough cards in their pools that had their guild's mechanic. Probably just a weird coincidence, but it seemed like a much bigger issue this time around than in GRN. Either way though, I am excited to try out draft where you can actually get a critical mass of synergistic cards.

January 21, 2019 11:13 a.m.

DemonDragonJ says... #14

Mark Rosewater mentioned in his article last week that, when WotC decided to reprint Absorb in Ravnica Allegiance, they also were contemplating reprinting Undermine in Guilds of Ravnica (since both sets were obviously in development at the same time), but ultimately decided to not do that, because they felt that making a player lose life was more powerful than making a player gain life, a decision that I feel is ridiculous, since they printed Ionize in the first set, a card that is almost as powerful as Undermine .

January 21, 2019 6:45 p.m.

Darkshadow327 says... #15

Also, DemonDragonJ, Ionize can be seen as better once you see the deck it is in. Izzet control/burn. "I'm gonna counter that, and then to add insult to injury I burn you for 2 as well."

January 21, 2019 7:33 p.m.

LittleBlueHero says... #16

Sunday Pre-release went really well. I went Mardu with my Rakdos kit and let me tell you attrition is a real strategy in limited. Played against Gruul, Simic, Rakdos, and Bant(azorious kit).

My removal package... 2x Skewer the Critics , 1x Get the Point , 1x Grotesque Demise , 1x Bedeck / Bedazzle , 1x Bladebrand , 1x Sky Tether 2x Noxious Groodion , 1x Hackrobat , 1x Twilight Panther ... made life very difficult for my opponents

Hackrobat was an absolute beast getting in and hitting for 4 at least once almost every time i played it. Since I was controlling their board they were always hesitant to block because of the potential deathtouch. Same goes for Twilight Panther . It didn't deal as much damage but could usually be used to activate spectacle since people wouldn't block it.

Judith, the Scourge Diva also proved to be very problematic for opponents and a lot of fun to play with. So much so that I decided to try and build a commander deck for her.

I was very lucky being able to play 4 of my 6 rares. I don't know if I could expect this kind of consistency again but I would be willing to try if I had the chance. I will for sure be looking at all these cards carefully during draft weekend.

Also I didn't pull one, but playing against a turn 3 Theater of Horrors is just as hard as turn 3 Rhythm of the Wild

January 22, 2019 10:44 a.m.

DemonDragonJ says... #17

Darkshadow327, that is exactly what Undermine does, so I fail to see why Ionize is acceptable, but undermine is not.

January 22, 2019 8:44 p.m.

coltron518 says... #18

DemonDragonJ: because Ionize deals 2 damage while Undermine does 3. one is a Counterspell with a Shock attached, the other is a Counterspell with a Lightning Bolt attached.

January 22, 2019 9:05 p.m.

Darkshadow327 says... #19

I think what I was more trying to get at was the situation the 2 cards are used in. In the case of facing dimir I would be more ok with looses the 3 life from Undermine . Dimir is more controlly so it doesn't do as much damage, whereas Izzet tends to do a lot of damage faster.

IDK, I guess it's more personal preference than anything else. I would honestly rather get hit by an Undermine than an Ionize (I think I'm just weird like that, lol).

January 22, 2019 9:10 p.m.

coltron518 says... #20

Darkshadow327: why would you rather lose 3 life than lose 2 life?

January 22, 2019 9:22 p.m.

Darkshadow327 says... #21

Basically because of the deck they would be in coltron518. Izzet will deal a lot of damage quickly, and Ionize just helps with that. Odds are good that I won't be able to recover. While Undermine does technically deal more damage Dimir tends to be slower, this means that I can recover.

Basically the damage means little to me I guess (in a vacuum). What I'm more concerned about is the deck that these cards go in.

January 22, 2019 11:18 p.m.

Caerwyn says... #22

Let’s not forget that Ionize does, in fact, deal more damage than Undermine . Everything that triggers off life loss will trigger off either; anything that triggers odd damage will only trigger off Ionize .

January 23, 2019 1:15 a.m.

coltron518 says... #23

cdkime: yes, we already know this. or at least i did. but my point was numbers, not semantics.

January 23, 2019 10:40 p.m.

DemonDragonJ says... #24

I only now noticed that the new Rakdos has only one mana of each of his guild's colors in his mana cost, breaking from the normal pattern of guild leaders having two mana of each of their guild's colors in their costs. Has WotC ever commented about that?

January 31, 2019 8:43 p.m.

Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor says... #25

All of the guild leaders in both Guilds of Ravnica and Ravnica Allegiances are like that. It's probably something they just decided on for this cycle of Ravnica sets.

January 31, 2019 10:38 p.m.

Boza says... #26

It is probably because all are new-ish guild leaders, for example, in Allegiance, only Rakdos is the original guild leader, while in Guilds, the only one returning from RtR as a guild leader are Aurelia and Trostani. So with only a few of the original guild leaders, it does not make sense that they would all be so steeped in the guild's colors as entrenched leaders.

February 1, 2019 3:44 a.m.

DemonDragonJ says... #27

Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor, Boza, as long as I am discussing that subject, why does the new Niv-Mizzet have three mana of each of his guild's colors in his mana cost? Surely, he is not so powerful that such a strict casting cost was necessary?