Guilds of Ravnica - what are you looking forward to?

A while? It's been 3-4 days...

The way I would see them adapted into MTGPQ:
1) Convoke - makes creatures cheaper depending on how many creatures you have out. This SHOULD be independent of power/toughness, but there are two ways to scale this to accommodate for "limited to 3 creature slots" problem:
     - Count reinforcements - this is something Oktagon has come up with and has of course embraced being their creation. I do see it as perfectly legit especially since Selesnya goes wide.
     - Scale the reduction with a factor (example: Convoke 2 reduces the cost of the card by 2 for each creature out)

2) Surveil - this is easy, look at Karn's first ability, but instead of dumping the cards into exile you dump them into the graveyard.

3) Mentor - again, this can be implemented directly. Whenever a creature with Mentor attacks, your first other creature with less power than the Mentor creature gets +1/+1. Two issues with this though:
    - Since the order of the creature matters, always picking the first might not benefit immediately in the same combat
    - +1/+1 might be super underpowered, so maybe here also a scale factor would be nice (Mentor x for putting x +1/+1 counters), or again, counting reinforcements of the mentor creature.

4) Undergrowth - ETB effect that counts the number of creature cards in your graveyard to scale the effect (on creatures and supports). On spells, the effect scales as the spell is cast. Sounds powerful enough, and I seriously hope they don't cap it.

5) Jump-Start - since we don't have access to graveyard, I seriously doubt we will have access to it that way. Instead, this will probably be similar to Aftermath (activated gem to cast the card from graveyard), with the twist that you also discard the last card in hand. Depending on the printed cards, could be either very good or super mediocre.


I'm super hyped about masterpieces for the two sets though, and wondering whether they will contain incarnations of the old paruns. That would be super excited (Obzedat, Ghost Council remains my top favorite card of all times!)

@Tremayne
My analysis on the mechanics did not match yours. Sorry maybe I should have been more specific about this.

The whole beauty of Jump-start is that although at first glance it represents a disadvantage to Flashback (which requires no discard), it can actually be used in tandem with other graveyard strategies that are more powerful in Guilds of Ravnica than your regular set. Discarding other Jump-Start cards to pay for a Jump-Start cost can be pretty powerful, and in MTGPQ where this is based on activated gems I don't think it would necessarily get out of hand.

Btw, the way the guilds were designed was to provide viable synergies between common-color guilds. This way:
1) Selesnya/Boros - take advantage of small creatures either to convoke or to mentor (which also encourages a go-wide approach).
2) Boros/Izzet - this is probably the most awkward color combination, but they added temporary creature pumps so that mentor creatures can temporarily grow before combat to pump other creatures more.
3) Izzet/Dimir - Dimir's surveil can put Jump-Start cards into the graveyard that can then be cast from there, but other Jump-Start cards can also be discarded for a later Jump-Start.
4) Dimir/Golgari - Once again, graveyard is kind. Dimir uses surveil to put (creature) cards into the graveyard, that are then useful for powering up Undergrowth effects.
5) Golgari/Selesnya - is another slightly weird color combination, but since both Selesnya and Golgari are creature-centric, I can imagine you can start with smaller Selesnya creatures that have some sort of relevant effect, and then later in the game fuel (from the graveyard) Undergrowth effects.

For convoke, it would make sense to disable a creature until your next turn in order to add mana (per reinforcement) to a card in your hand.

wereotter said:

Mburn7 said:

Brakkis said:

A while? It's been 3-4 days...

What do you mean?  Pre-release event was September 29-30.  Its been 11-ish days

The set itself officially launched on Oct 5, though. Which means as of this point, the set has only been out for 5 days.

Ok, fair point.  I usually consider the pre-release as when the set comes out, since it is the first (and often only) time I get to play with the cards.

My personal predictions are:

Convoke:  Works like Crew (hopefully tokens included this time)
Mentor:  Works like paper, possibly with some cards that give more than +1/+1
Undergrowth:  Works like paper.  Easy to count graveyard stuff
Jump Start:  Works like Aftermath (activate gem, discard card, then cast)
Surveil:  Works like Strategic Planning

some of the rares and mythics are going to be funky to work with, but for the most part the set is pretty straightforward.

bken1234 said:

I'm most excited about Thief of Sanity. I pulled it in the prerelease and when I put it in play each time my opponent's face would go completely green. If it's translated literally, it will be a game breaking card. 

I have a feeling he's going to just be Etali 2.0.  

Or maybe Etali combined with Mastermind's Acquisition

journeymage said:

I just wanna see some cards that are more powerful than Blue Sun's Zenith and Luminarch's Ascension! Turn 1 kills for days!! 

And thus issuing Season 5 of the nerf or not-nerf wars on these forums.

Hopefully better drop rates  .

I had terrible luck with M19.

Firinmahlazer said:

Hopefully better drop rates  .

I had terrible luck with M19.

Same.  All of my M19 mythics were purchased with Purples.  Terrible waste of resources, and I didn't get a Blue Sun's Zenith.

I'm looking forward to some bug fixing, the last update looked like it broke more than it fixed.