Guild Locket Rebalance

Shaaw

I'll preface this by saying I don't believe every card should always have utility at any level... That being said, most cards especially in the uncommon+ rarities should have some utility at some level, at least for certain objectives.

In this case, I bring up the guild lockets. In paper magic they hold some utility even at the uncommon level, particularly in sealed/limited gameplay. In MTGPQ, they are prohibitively weak in relation to their cost to play.

The reality is, on their own card draw effects have less utility in MTGPQ than in paper magic. Lets compare them to the other main mana producer cards in GRN though, guildgates.

Guildgates are an automatic 1 gem switch per turn, with up to 5 gem switches per turn. This is for a cost of 5 mana.

Lockets are an any colour activation trigger to switch 2, with the very small bonus of drawing 2 cards if it is destroyed. This for a cost of 14 mana.

The card draw on destruction is a very minor effect. In almost all situations (WG mass gem changers might be an exception) the actual gem changing effect is weaker than what you generally see in standard or legacy legal common supports. Plus it costs nearly three times what the guildgates would cost.

I propose a few different solutions to make the card useable, but not overused. (Each numbered option below is an OR, not an AND with the other options.)

1) Change the activation trigger to on colour gems (eg. Boros Locket would be activate 3 R/W). Increase to 3 gems changed, basically allowing the trigger to replace itself.

2) Make the gem change an automatic trigger at the start of turn rather than by activation.

3) Increase the number of activated gems to 4-5 to increase the trigger chance significantly.

Any of these options would help bring it into reasonable utility at 14 cost, especially in the silver tier and lower tiers. Overall there will be 10 lockets total between all the Ravnica guilds, and it would be a shame to have all of them be completely useless because their power:cost ratios are totally out of whack. With a few minor tweaks these cards could see some situational play without being overpowered.