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A Durdle’s Guide to Ravnica – Gold

Here we are at the conclusion! So far Return to Ravnica has shown us only a couple of strong cards in each colour, so we’re hoping that the Gold cards make up for that. Given the intrinsic drawback of needing two colours of mana to cast them, I’d say it’s fairly safe to expect an elevated power level here. Enough preamble, let’s dive in and see if we’re right!

[card]Abrupt Decay[/card]
Remember that song “Too Damn Hype” by DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince? OK, so maybe I’m the only one who owned that album (probably on vinyl…) but it perfectly describes this card…in Standard at least. The “can’t be countered” clause is far less relevant when counters are largely being ignored, and the list of pertinent targets is a short one: [card]Oblivion Ring[/card], [card]Detention Sphere[/card], [card]Liliana of the Veil[/card] and [card]Ajani, Caller of the Pride[/card]. At a stretch we can include [card]Centaur Healer[/card] and [card]Intangible Virtue[/card]. Although I think its usefulness will increase as the meta settles, and maybe even more so when Gatecrash hits, right now it’s a sideboard card at best.

It seems though that the older the format, the better Decay becomes. In Modern it basically kills everything in Jund (minus Bloodbraid), Doran and Affinity, laughs at the [card]Spell Snare[/card] that Zoo or Faeries is holding and kills Delvers and [card]Tarmogoyf[/card]s while being afraid of nothing. In Legacy it brings an abrupt end to the tyranny of [card]Counterbalance[/card] while also destroying basically every creature in the format. By no means is it a bad card, but I expect the high price to decay rather quickly.

[card]Archon of the Triumvirate[/card]
I miss [card]Frost Titan[/card]. Well, maybe that’s a little strong. I liked [card]Frost Titan[/card], and seeing this poor imitation makes me nostalgic. Kids, this is no [card]Frost Titan[/card]. First of all, it costs SEVEN. It has evasion sure, but it has no built-in protection from removal. Is the ability to shut down planeswalkers better than locking down a creature and worth the loss of 2 points of power? It really depends on where the metagame goes. The difference between 6 and 7 is a big one though, so don’t be in a hurry to get yo’ archon and play this guy.

[card]Armada Wurm[/card]
If there were a Phallic Art club, [card]Armada Wurm[/card] would be a prominent member. Six mana for two 5/5 tramplers is hard to beat, without even consdering populate shenanigans. Having one removal spell against 4 open mana and this guy with his token will be rough: does he have the [card]Restoration Angel[/card] or the populate spell? Choose wrong, get the shaft. [card]Broodmate Dragon[/card] was great in its time…how is this not just awesome too?

[card]Armada Wurm[/card] gives GW aggro decks a massive tool for games that go late, penetrating strong defenses and basically forcing the opponent to have the sweeper. How many 2-turn clocks do you get for 6 mana?

[card]Azorius Charm[/card]
As much as I would have liked more than just a cantrip for the blue ability, this card is sweet for constructed play. It’s a close call for the best of the Charms, actually. Giving all your guys lifelink is the least useful ability, and even that can turn a race against Zombies or other aggro in your favour in a hurry. Drawing a card at instant speed is pretty good in a format with miracles I hear, and is still fine otherwise.

So how good is the third ability? The first two are fine but likely wouldn’t be enough to get this card into constructed decks. So, we can put an attacking or blocking creature on top of its owner’s library. Well the obvious interaction here is that it kills tokens outright. You can save your own guys in a pinch, you can reset your [card]Thragtusk[/card] or [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card], you can combine it with a [card]Thought Scour[/card] to be more permanent removal, you can slow down reanimation strategies…the uses are varied. Again, not worth a card on its own but combined with the other effects it is likely worth more than a card.

[card]Call of the Conclave[/card]
Ravnica gave us [card]Watchwolf[/card]. At the time a 3/3 for 2 was just pure value. Normally for that sort of ratio you expected a Mogg Flunkies-level drawback but yet here we were with no text whatsoever. It saw Pro Tour play and is fondly remembered even now.

[card]Call of the Conclave[/card] might actually be better than [card]Watchwolf[/card]. Sure it’s a token and as such dies to [card]Unsummon[/card], but IN ITS ENVIRONMENT it has the huge advantage of setting up populate. You can also target it with [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card], though I don’t know if those two cards will be seen in the same deck . Once the Standard meta moves away from [card]Terminus[/card], cards like this will become much more playable.

[card]Centaur Healer[/card]
So we go from a 3/3 token for 2 to a 3/3 creature for 3. What do you get for the extra colourless? Three life. And yet I think [card]Centaur Healer[/card] might be one of the most important G/W cards in the set.

Say WHAT? A [card]Watchwolf[/card] with half a [card]Healing Salve[/card] attached is GOOD? Well, yes it is. It turns out that Zombies is a pretty fast aggro deck with a very high damage output in the early turns. Healer not only negates the life lost from [card]Geralf’s Messenger[/card], it also trades with it both before and after undying. It also curves perfectly into [card]Restoration Angel[/card], which is exactly what I wanted to replace [card]Blade Splicer[/card]. It’s not as good, but beggars can’t be choosers.

Late game if you happen to have a Trostani (or, if you’re like me, a [card]Rhox Faithmender[/card]) in play, even more fun things happen. Lifegain never used to be a route worth taking, but there’s so much GOOD lifegain around right now that it might just be time to break out the old [card]Chalice of Life[/card]…

[card]Collective Blessing[/card]
As powerful as Overrun’s effect is, it never really broke the glass ceiling between Limited bomb and constructed staple. Whether it was the GGG in the cost, the need to keep creatures on the board for it to be good or something else was never really clear to me. It just…never worked out.

Enter [card]Collective Blessing[/card]. We lose trample, trade a G for a W and…make the bonus PERMANENT. Huh. Well OK then. One of the potential drawbacks with Overrun was that if you used mana dorks to cast it, they couldn’t attack. Problem solved! Enchantments aren’t the easiest thing to get rid of (only green and white can do it easily) and that bonus is HUGE. I can totally see this blessing an aggro or tokens list with its presence, and plan to try it myself.

[card]Corpsejack Menace[/card]
Of all the prerelease/intro deck promos, I like this one the most. [card]Doubling Season[/card] was always juuuuust on the verge of being playable, but 5 mana was just too much. [card]Parallel Lives[/card] got even closer, and has actually seen some success at SCG Opens and I believe the odd GP. So what would it take for one of the missing thirds of [card]Doubling Season[/card] to be as good as or better than Parallel Lives?

How about putting it on a 4/4 body for 4 mana? You’d probably never play that with no ability, but doubling +1/+1 counters is actually very relevant with [card]Gavony Township[/card] in the format. An uncounterable way to grow your entire team is already incredibly powerful, but doubling that ability is obviously twice as good. And God forbid you get TWO Corpsejacks into play. That’s a real menace to society.

Playing the two together means you need to play Junk, which has a pretty good manabase right now and allows you to play a bunch of token-producing planeswalkers and a good variety of removal. Step to it!

[card]Detention Sphere[/card]
So I don’t need to tell you this is good right? I mean, [card]Oblivion Ring[/card] is almost ubiquitous in any deck that can play it, so an O-Ring that has tinges of [card]Maelstrom Pulse[/card] should be no different. The inability to target other copies of the Sphere is a double-edged sword: you know that in a mirror match things are unlikely to be coming back, but that applies equally to your own stuff. The ability to nuke token armies makes up for that somewhat.

I think going forward, every deck is either going to be playing these or afraid of them. O-Ring will still see more play due to the colour restrictions on Sphere, but if you see a [card]Hallowed Fountain[/card] you should probably expect this.

[card]Dramatic Rescue[/card]
I haven’t really seen anyone talking about this card as a playable. It’s no [card]Vapor Snag[/card], I’ll give you that. However I did see a UW Delver deck running this (along with [card]Swift Justice[/card], actually) to pretty good effect. Unlike Snag it doesn’t also slap the opponent in the face, but it is more forgiving if you need to rescue one of your own dudes. It can still get an opposing blocker out of the way and act as a pseudo-Time Walk in the early game, only this time it also reverses any early shockland or Zombie damage you might have taken.

If we’re going to see a tempo deck in Standard, I think we’ll see [card]Dramatic Rescue[/card] as a part of it. That might have to wait until Gatecrash, as I have a feeling that Simic will have some tempo cards in it. Right now we can combine Rescue, [card]Azorius Charm[/card] and cheap detain spells like [card]Inaction Injunction[/card] (cantrip!) and [card]Azorius Arrester[/card] to make a start, at least. Good? Only one way to find out!

[card]Dreadbore[/card]
There’s been a ton of hype around this card, and early results suggest that hype is completely valid. It kills EVERYTHING. It’s also the first time we’ve seen “Destroy target planeswalker” on a card. Being able to do that for a mere two mana puts [card]Dreadbore[/card] in a class above most removal in that it is almost always going to be netting you value.

There isn’t a playable planeswalker that costs the same as or less than [card]Dreadbore[/card]. Being able to spend less mana on the answer than you did on the threat is essential for decks that want to exert control, so that’s a giant check mark. The fact that almost every other removal spell for creatures comes with a restriction ([card]Victim of Night[/card], [card]Ultimate Price[/card]) or a higher mana cost ([card]Sever the Bloodline[/card], [card]Trostani’s Judgment[/card]) further elevates Dreadbore’s playability. The sorcery-speed restriction does put you at something of a disadvantage against things like the Keyrunes, which is basically the only thing preventing [card]Dreadbore[/card] from just being the best thing going.

[card]Epic Experiment[/card]
It’s been funny watching the reactions to this card and people’s changing opinions of it. Is it playable in Modern Storm decks? Is it playable in Standard? Heck, is it playable at all?

It actually doesn’t matter. You get to play a spell that even tells you it’s epic. In Standard there are a few of ways you can go: lots of ramp spells into [card]Devil’s Play[/card] (which conveniently flashes back if you hit it off the Experiment), ramp and mill spells into [card]Increasing Confusion[/card] (also with flashback), token-makers into [card]Burn at the Stake[/card], even getting to 11 mana and hoping to hit [card]Worldfire[/card] and any burn spell. Almost all of these decks want to run [card]Increasing Vengeance[/card] as well, a card I feel has been hunting for a home for a while. I will be playing more than one deck with this card, and I am not ashamed in the least.

[card]Goblin Electromancer[/card]
One pleasant trend I’m seeing in this set is the number of playable commons. Electromancer is definitely a member of that group as it allows a lot of decks to do things they would otherwise have to wait for. Aside from things like adding a point to your Bonfire, it also makes otherwise-expensive spells like [card]Inspiration[/card] and [card]Amass the Components[/card] into more palatable options.

I don’t think many people would have expected to see an innocuous common from RTR in a Modern Pro Tour, but SCG Black went that route with UR Storm this past weekend. If it can see play at that level, there’s no reason we can’t find a home for this in our Standard FNM decks, right?

[card]Grisly Salvage[/card]
So the first time I read this, I thought it was a nice combination of Mulch and Tracker’s Instinct. I figured it would see a good bit of play in Reanimator and possibly make its way into some sort of self-mill Golgari strategy. Then I read it again. INSTANT?

Let’s take a look at why that’s important, since it might not seem to be at first glance. How often do you need to keep two mana open in a deck that plays out of the graveyard? How many counterspells are played right now anyway? Surely not enough that you need to end-step Salvage? Probably not, but there are other factors here. In a pinch Salvage can act as a combat trick, allowing you to draw a discardable for your [card]Lotleth Troll[/card] or to pump your [card]Splinterfright[/card], Jarad or even [card]Boneyard Wurm[/card]. You can stock your graveyard at instant speed, leaving your opponent’s sorcery-speed hate in their hand while you reanimate a [card]Griselbrand[/card] or letting them tap their [card]Deathrite Shaman[/card] to exile something irrelevant thinking you have no better targets.

Pro Tour Return to Ravnica showed us that Salvage can also be very good in Modern, enabling all sorts of DredgeVine shenanigans. Given that [card]Vengevine[/card] is one of my favourite cards, I can see myself trying those decks at some point.

[card]Hellhole Flailer[/card]
I actually like this guy and think it might have a role in Rakdos Aggro. It’s a shame he doesn’t have a relevant creature type, because I could see it being even better. So far the brewing around RB Aggro has been focused on Zombies, but perhaps there is another way to go. A 4/3 for 3 isn’t going to block anyway, and the ability to add that little bit of reach shouldn’t be overlooked. If we splash green for something like Rancor or [card]Kessig Wolf Run[/card], that reach gets to be insanely long.

[card]Isperia, Supreme Judge[/card]
I was already ecstatic that [card]Gideon Jura[/card] was rotating. That card has been the cause of so much misery for me when playing creature decks that I hope it never again sees the light of day. Having him in the same format as Isperia though would have been flat worse. Just draw ALL the cards.

As it stands, Isperia is probably going to spend a lot of time in binders full of sphnix women. She hits hard but the 4 in the rear has the major drawback of making her vulnerable to [card]Mizzium Mortars[/card]. Control decks would rather play [card]Sphinx of the Chimes[/card], Niv Mizzet, even [card]Archon of the Triumvirate[/card] over Isperia, even with the ability to draw all those cards. Pass.

[card]Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord[/card]
I like almost all the guild leaders (the notable exception being Isperia), but Jarad is the one about which I am the most excited. Hard to get rid of permanently, ability to get fat without doing things you don’t want to be doing, and the ability to just destroy your opponent without ever turning sideways…Jarad is just GOOD.

The first thing I want to do with Jarad is slide him into the self-mill [card]Splinterfright[/card] deck that tried to be good during Innistrad and Dark Ascension but never quite made it. Being able to sacrifice a [card]Ghoultree[/card] (that you cast for G1) for 10 to the dome is just beautiful. Oh, and he’s an Elf Zombie. BALLLER STATUS. I will be playing this guy and probably loving it.

[card]Lotleth Troll[/card]
Do you need me to tell you that this guy is amazing? That he’s a 3 drop and not a 2-drop? That even though he’s a Zombie, he’s probably better in other decks? No? Excellent. Let’s move along then.

PS: play this with Jarad. You’re welcome.

[card]Loxodon Smiter[/card]
And here we come to the “pushed to all buggery” category. A 4/4 for 3 that can’t be countered and REALLY wants you to play Liliana? Come ON! Although he somewhat falls into the [card]Tarmogoyf[/card] “just a big dumb dude” category, he’s ALWAYS a big dumb dude regardless of what’s in a graveyard. And he smashes face. I can’t really see myself ever being happy to play this guy, but he does what you want him to do and he does it well.

My problem with this card is how this is fine to print in Standard, yet [card]Tarmogoyf[/card] is not. Sure Goyf hits a turn earlier but he also isn’t going to swing for 4 on turn 4 very often in this environment. He can also be countered and discarded. Maybe it’s the colour requirement? Would Goyf just be splashed everywhere? Either way, I am ambivalent about Smiter.

[card]Lyev Skyknight[/card]
Three-power fliers for three aren’t exactly known for being tournament staples, especially when they only have one toughness and thus die to a stiff breeze. However, reread that detain ability. Yup, target permanent. Planeswalker getting you down? Shut it down for a turn, then start attacking it for 3 the next turn. You’ve also got a tempo play here to shut down a mana dork or early Zombie beatdown that fits nicely into the UW Tempo deck we were musing on above. Not the most exciting card in the set but definitely a strong one tat looks pretty damn sweet in foil.

[card]Mercurial Chemister[/card]
You won’t find many people to argue that this card is just about the bombiest of bombs in Limited. I’ve seen it played in Constructed though, and it does some serious work in a control shell. Even if you never use the red ability, the card says “U, T: Draw two cards” on it. It also dodges [card]Pillar of Flame[/card], [card]Ultimate Price[/card] and [card]Abrupt Decay[/card] so your opponent will have to spend quality removal on it. I don’t know if it warrants a main deck slot, but in the board against decks with limited removal it can just give you insurmountable card advantage.

[card]Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius[/card]
When control decks look for a finisher, they want a card that wins the game if you untap with it. Niv-Mizzet fits that bill and then some. He’s been a constant in my Grixis control list, and when I have untapped with him it hasn’t been a fair fight. He even goes over the top of stuff like [card]Thragtusk[/card], which is apparently just everywhere. While he is dealing damage you’re drawing more and more cards with which to maintain control. If you need to, you can pick off opposing creatures too (thought this sadly doesn’t draw you cards) and you can even redirect the pings to planeswalkers (also not drawing any cards).

Niv is the real deal. A six mana 5/5 with evasion would be good anyway, but the ability to just draw stupid numbers of cards is even stronger than you think. Would play again.

[card]Rakdos’s Return[/card]
Mike Flores loves this card. Now that on its own is not necessarily a ringing endorsement, but I’ve tried it and he’s right. It’s amazing. It has the blowout potential of a Mind Rot and can finish the game like a [card]Devil’s Play[/card]. When you add in things like the interaction with [card]Cyclonic Rift[/card] and the low number of counterspells being played, Return gets even more powerful.

“But isn’t it just bad against aggro decks?” I hear you ask. Not if the aggro player is any good. Over-extending into a sweeper is a classic mistake made by aggro players, so much of the time they will hold a few in their hand to recover after a [card]Mizzium Mortars[/card], [card]Bonfire of the Damned[/card] or Mutilate. What a shame the the card you were holding was actually a [card]Rakdos’s Return[/card], huh? BOOM headshot.

[card]Righteous Authority[/card]
I wish I didn’t have this unhealthy love for auras, but there it is. Perhaps it’s tied to my unhealthy love of Bruna, Light of Alabaster? Either way, I really want to find a way to make this card good. If we could take away the two-for-one possibility it would be very strong: personal [card]Howling Mine[/card] combined with the classic [card]Empyrial Armor[/card]. Maybe we put it on Sigarda and/or Invisible Stalker?

If the enchantment deck with [card]Sphere of Safety[/card] and such ends up being a real thing, this is likely the finisher. The power level is really high, and maybe the lack of good instant-speed removal means I can actually get a swing or two in with the enchantee before it dies.

[card]Selesnya Charm[/card]
The other contender for best Charm, Selesnya’s entry in the cycle does three things I would probably spend 2 mana and a card to do. GW aggro decks have often had trouble dealing with fat creatures, so having the ability to just exile them at instant speed before continuing the beats is very strong. The pump can push through some extra damage past a chump blocker, and the Knight token is a last resort. You probably don’t want to spend the card on it, but if you need the extra dude it’s not the worst thing you could be doing.

[card]Sphinx’s Revelation[/card]
[card]Blue Sun’s Zenith[/card] was played in some control decks. It was targeted but had a UUU mana requirement and shuffled back into your deck. We’re trading U for W here but we’re gaining the ability to refill our “life meter” along with our hand, so that we might not be dead before we get a chance to use all the sweet, sweet cards we just drew. I hear not dying is pretty important in a game of Magic. I’m not revealing any secrets to you here I’m sure, but control decks sometimes just need that one extra turn to turn the tables.

I of course want to cast this in a deck with [card]Rhox Faithmender[/card], both because I love that card and because ALL THE LIFES. I also want to see this in foil, because I bet it looks SWEET.

[card]Trostani, Selesnya’s Voice[/card]
Have you ever seen Trostani in play in Constructed? I have. It wasn’t pretty for the Zombie-playing opponent until he found a [card]Dreadbore[/card], by which time it was too late. An army of Centaurs and a life total of 40+ were too much to handle by then. I hate to say it, but Trostani may actually be better than [card]Rhox Faithmender[/card] if you’re trying to fight the hyper-aggro decks that exist right now. She can gain more life, blocks just as well and has the added bonus of occasionally making you extra beaters. Most decks absolutely have to deal with her right away, or they just won’t be able to deal enough damage in time. God forbid you ever have her (them?) in play with the Faithmender when you blink a [card]Thragtusk[/card] or an [card]Armada Wurm[/card]. Awwwww yeah!

[card]Vraska the Unseen[/card]
Remember when Vraska was spoiled and everyone went nuts, including certain online retailers who priced her at $45? Fun times. The reality is that Vraska is a very powerful card and a whole lot of fun, but she requires a lot of thought and effort to build around.

I think the biggest misconception is that her +1 ability is a great way to kill some creatures. Well, not really. Decks that can deal 6+ damage to her on turn 5 can probably afford to just ignore her until she hits 7. If you’re still alive then, and if they can’t deal with three 1/1s, they will just attack her with enough power to keep her off ultimate. Like pretty much any good planeswalker she excels when you play her into an empty board, but also when you juggle the +1 and -3 to deal with problem permanents while keeping creatures at bay. Once you have a stable board position you can start ticking her up.

Apparently the Assassin tokens for Vraska have been hard for some people to find? I have 3 and only two Vraska, not sure what happened there. Not complaining of course, just hoping I get a chance to use them!

Thoughts on Gold

Whew! That was a marathon. The real beef of this set is clearly in Gold, with all of the major chase cards (except Jace) in here. Early results have shown that manabases are VERY smooth right now, and with nobody really looking to attack that axis you can probably just build anything you want. Except, ironically, a land destruction deck.

Vraska is the gold card I most want to build around, largely because it will allow me to also play [card]Desecration Demon[/card] and other fun cards from this set while winning in a way that doesn’t care how many [card]Thragtusk[/card]s you resolved.

I hope you enjoyed this look at Return to Ravnica from a different perspective. Only a few short months until we do this again with Gatecrash!

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