Magic Deck Vortex: Exit 267 – Towards Ravnica, part 2

If you haven’t read my previous article, Exit 267 – Towards Ravnica, you may want to, seeing as this is sequel to that article.

A lot can happen through a week in “Rumor World”. MTG Salvation is already starting to rake up even more rumors than last week about Ravnica. They now have a couple more of the guild names and keywords, how the guild mana symbol will be formatted, a few more new cards, and more! But since I said I would follow-up on Guildpact and Dissension in this article, I guess I’ll get to that first.

Guildpact is the second set in the Ravnica Block. It has a total of 165 cards, near the card-count of other recent expansion sets. It is due to release into stores on February 3, 2006. Previews on www.magicthegathering.com start one month in advance to the release, January 3, 2006. These previews will be useful when seeking a strategy at the Pre-Release Tournaments on January 21, 2006, giving you a good 2 weeks’ heads-up on the set. As for the design team, it is led by Mike Elliot. The other main guys on the team consist of Aaron Forsythe, Devin Low, and Brian Schneider.

Other than the fact sheet that they provided us with, www.magicthegathering.com has been fairly useless in the speculation on the block. So, I think we all knew where I turned next… the rumor site of them all… MTG Salvation. I found that they also had very little information on the new set, but at least more than mtg.com. 'Pandafarmer', one of the board’s members, got hold of some of the pictures and text of the Guildpact novel. But first… For those of you who don’t know the basic information about the book…

Now onto the pictures… the first two are of the novel’s cover. The first being the entire cover of the novel, and the second being a zoom-in on the two characters on the novel. Note that these characters are speculated to be in a guild either called “The Gruul” or “The Syndicate”. It is also thought that these people are in the B/W Guild. So, in turn, the B/W Guild might be called either “The Gruul” or “The Syndicate.”

After some more work, pandafarmer was able to clean up a zoom-in on the set’s name, that was shown on the cover of the novel. The picture clearly shows that the style of the text for Guildpact is very similar to that of Ravnica. Unlike the major difference between… say… Champions of Kamigawa and Betrayers of Kamigawa.

Finally, he provided us with a little of the context from the novel. It isn’t much, but it does give clues as to the guilds, characters, and events to suspect in the Guildpact novel.

Hopefully, pandafarmer will be out in full-force at the upcoming Gen-Con with his mini-scanner to bring MTG Salvation sneak peek photos on Ravnica. He said that if he does, he will probably bring them in day-by-day, instead of all at the end like last time. That’s gives us something to look forward to.

Dissension is the silent one that remains in the shadows of the dark alleys. It’s the one that doesn’t speak or get spoken to. All we’ve gotten from the set is simply the fact sheet from www.magicthegathering.com, which has a lot of holes in it. It seems like they wanted to leave us uninformed on the most important stuff, just to keep us coming back for more. Why those little manipulators!.... Anyways, here’s information we did receive from the fact sheet.

Dissension is the third set in the Ravnica block. It will also contain 165 cards, just like its brother Guildpact. Now the Wizards got stingy. They didn’t give us any information about the Release Date, the Pre-Release Tournament Dates, or the starting Preview Date. But they did find that we need to know who designed and developed the set. On the Design Team, Aaron Forsythe leads the pack of Brandon Bozzi, Mark Rosewater, and Mark Gottlieb. That’s right MaRo and MaGo on the same team. And on the defending side, over in the blue corner, we have Matt Place getting into the ring, led on by the cheers of his coaches Mark Rosewater, Brian Schneider, and Steve Warner.

Other than what Wizards has given up, we have almost no information on the third set. So it should be one of sets to speculate on about 2 months down the road. …and that pretty much sums up what information we have about the two other sets. Now, onto the newer rumors about the Ravnica set.

I guess I’ll go in a list format since that was pretty simple and efficient last time. And it seemed like you guys liked the article last time, seeing as it was one of the most viewed articles (According to Streetz). With that said, let’s get started…

1.) The name of the Blue/Black Guild has been confirmed to be Dimir, short for House Dimir. Its ability has to do with paying 3 mana of certain color, and discarding the card with the ability, to search your library for a card with the same converted mana cost as the discarded card. (The keyword is still not confirmed for this guild, but it is predicted to be “Transmute” by Rancored_Elf.) For example…

2.) The name of the Red/White Guild has pretty much been confirmed to be Boros, short for Boros Legion. It’s ability is keyworded “Radiance”. And it has to do with protection and the similarity of the colors. Something similar to…

3.) The name of the Black/Green guild is speculated to be “The Golgari”. The keyword for it’s ability is thought to be “Dredge”. And its ability supposedly looks like this…

4.) The name of the Green/White guild is “Selesnya Conclave” and has the keyworded ability “Convoke.” This ability was discussed in last week’s article, and allows you to tap creatures to make your spells cheaper. I know that some of you probably won’t read last week’s article, so I’ll just post the ability here.

5.) It has been speculated that this block will follow a 4/3/3 Guild Split. This means that Ravnica will have 4 guilds in its lineup, whereas, the two expansion sets will each have 3 different guilds. Seeing as we’ve already predicted the four guilds that will be in Ravnica (U/B, G/B, G/W, R/W), that means that the other six (U/G, U/R, U/W, W/B, R/B, R/G) will be separated up into the remaining two sets, according to that plan.

[EDITOR COMMENTS: Given the remaining six color groups that have yet to be seen, I speculate that U/W, W/B and R/G will be in Guildpact and U/G, U/R and R/B will be in Dissension. This is just my speculation. ~Streetz]

6.) This is a basic chart of how everything will layout in Ravnica and the rest of the block. The four guilds that have been confirmed in Ravnica are named with their specific name. The other six have yet to be named.

7.) Again, Rancored_Elf has confirmed more cards for Ravnica, and I’d rather just link the link, as it will keep updating, rather than having to have Streetz or I write that massive amount of text again. So here’s the link. [EDITOR'S EDIT: Nope.. where going to show all of the cards as they are currently presented on www.mtgsalvation.com.. so you won't have to click to see the list!]

WHITE

<<<<< - 1W
Instant
Target creature gains protection from a color of you choice until end of turn.
Radiate (All creatures you control that share a color with the target gain the effect)

Benevolent Ancestor - 2W
Creature - Spirit
Defender
T: Prevent the next 1 damage that would be dealt to target creature or player this turn.
0/4
#3/306

Gate Hound - 2w
Creature - Hound
Creatures you control have vigilance as long as Gate Hound is enchanted.
1/1

Humped Llama? - 2ww
Creature - .....Llama?
Flying
When Humped Llama comes into play, target opponent puts a 4/4 black Horror creature token into play.
5/5

{{{{{ Phalanx - 4w
Creature - Human Soldier
Convoke (Each creature you tap as you play {{{{{ Phalanx reduces its cost by one mana of that creature's color.)
When {{{{{ Phalanx comes into play, you gain 1 life for each creature you control.
2/4

BLUE

Convolute - 2u
Instant
Counter target spell unless its controller pays .
#40/306

Muddle up the Mix - UU
Instant
Counter target spell unless...?
Transmute 1UU (1UU, Discard this card: Search your library for a card with converted mana cost equal to this card's, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library. Play this ability only any time you could play a sorcery.)

Peel from Reality - 1U
Instant
Return target creature you control and target creature you don't control to owners' hands.

Vedalken @@@@ ? - 2UU?
Creature - Vedalken Wizard
U, T: Target player puts the top two cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
1/4

BLACK

$$$$ Imp - 2B
Creature - Imp
Flying
Whenever $$$$ Imp deals combat damage to a creature, destroy that creature.
Dredge 5 (If you would draw a card, you may put the top five cards of your library into your graveyard instead. If you do, return $$$$ Imp from your graveyard to your hand.)
1/2

%%%% Witch - B
Creature - Human Wizard?
1, Sacrifice a creature: Look at the top two cards of target opponent's library, then remove one of them from the game.
1/1

&&&&& - 1B
Creature - Zombie
1U: &&&&& gains flying until end of turn.
2/1

Dark Confidant - 1B
Creature - Human Wizard
At the beginning of your upkeep, reveal the top card of your library and put that card into your hand.
You lose life equal to the converted mana cost.
2/1
Greatness, at any cost.
#81/306

~~~~~ - 2BB
Sorcery
Return target creature card from your graveyard to play.
If any G was spent to play this spell, that creature comes into play with a +1/+1 counter on it.

RED

Fiery Conclusion - 1R
Instant
As an additional cost to play Fiery Conclusion, sacrifice a creature.
Fiery Conclusion deals 5 damage to target creature.

Lizardman? - R
Creature - Lizard??
Defender
Sacrifice 3 mountains: Lizardman loses defender until end of turn.
3/2

Smash - 2R
Instant
Destroy Target Artifact.
Draw A Card.
Note: This is a reprint.

GREEN

??? - 4GG
Instant
You gain 1 life for each creature in play. If any W was spent to play ~this~, untap all creatures you control.

????? - G
Instant
Convoke (You may tap an untapped green creature you control instead of paying ?????'s mana cost.)
Target creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn.

Birds of Paradise - G
Creature - Bird
Flying
T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.
0/1
Note: This is a reprint

Siege Wurm - 5GG
Creature - Wurm
Convoke
Trample
5/5

Spoiling? - 2GG
Sorcery
Destroy target land. If any B was spent to play Spoiling, all creatures get -1/-1 until end of turn.

^^^^^ - 1G
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature
When ^^^^^ comes into play, put two 1/1 green Saproling creature tokens into play.
Enchanted creature has trample.

GOLD

##### - WR
Creature - Human? Soldier?
Double strike
1/2

?? - 2BGG
Creature - Insect
Dredge 1(If you would draw a card, you may instead put the top card of your library into your graveyard and put ~This~ from your graveyard into your hand.)
(?), Sacrifice ~This~: Draw a card.
4/4

??? - WR
Creature - Human Soldier
T: Target creature can't attack or block this turn.
2/1

????? - UB
Sorcery
Target player puts the top 10 cards from his or her library into his or her graveyard.

?????? (w/g)(w/g)(w/g)
Enchantment
((w/g) can be paid with either W or G.)
Unknown text.

Boros Guildmage (r/w)(r/w)
Creature - Human Wizard
((r/w) can be paid with either R or W.)
R: Target creature gains haste until end of turn.
W: Target creature gains first strike until end of turn.
2/2

Dimir Cutpurse - 1UB
Creature - Spirit
Whenever Dimir Cutpurse deals combat damage to a player, that player discards a card and you draw a card.
2/2

Dimir Guildmage (u/b)(u/b)
Creature - Human? Wizard?
((u/b) can be paid with either U or B.)
(?)U: Draw a card.
(?)B: Target player discards a card. (Play this ability only any time you could play a sorcery.?)
2/2

Flame-Something Zealot - 1WRR
Creature - Elemental Berserker
When Flame-Something Zealot comes into play, creatures you control get +1/+1 and gain haste until end of turn.
2/2

Golgari Guildmage (b/g)(b/g)
Creature - Elf? Wizard?
((b/g) can be paid with either B or G.)
(?)B, Sacrifice a creature: Put target creature card from your graveyard into your hand.
(?)G: Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.
2/2

Loxodon ___ - 2WG
Creature - Elephant Cleric
When Loxodon _____ comes into play, gain 4 life.
WG, Sacrifice Loxodon _____: Regenerate all creatures you control.
4/4

Selesnya Guildmage (w/g)(w/g)
Creature - Elf Wizard
((w/g) can be paid with either W or G.)
(?)W: ?
(?)G: ?
2/2

ARTIFACT

?? - 2
Artifact
Play with the top card of your library revealed.
WG: Put the top card of your library on the bottom of your library.

Boros Signet - 2
Artifact
1, T: Add WR to your mana pool.

Dminir Signet - 2
Artifact
1, T: Add UB to your mana pool.

Golgari Signet - 2
Artifact
1, T: Add BG to your mana pool.

Selesnya Signet - 2
Artifact
1, T: Add WG to your mana pool.

20 Basic Lands: Swamp, Forest, Plains, Island and Mountain.

Everything listed above has been quoted from www.mtgsalvation.com. Their spoiler can be found here. Many thanks for the people over on MTGS for bringing us the bulk of this information. ~Streetz~

8.) This little piece of information by Mark Rosewater gives us a little information on how Ravnica will be multi-colored and somewhat powerful. Note: This was quoted from an article by MaRo on www.magicthegathering.com.

9.) In my last article, I speculated that there may be no Ravnica Pre-Release Tournaments. This is not true. Control_freak, off of these boards, has informed me that the Pre-Releases will be held on the weekend of September 24-25. This is good news for all of your tourney-goers who want to get a leg up on competition.

10.) The Guild Mana Symbols will be about 30% larger than the normal mana symbol. They will then be split with a diagonal going down to the left and up to the right. The will have normal background colors for the mana that are in them. The mana symbols in them will be slightly smaller than the current one. Here are some mock-ups just for an example of what they might look like. The green mana is shown purely for size comparison.

11.) Speculated by Rancored_Elf, the gold cards will not actually have a gold frame. Instead they will be a mix of the two colors indicated in the guild. Such as “The Golgari” guild’s cards will look similar to the layout of Llanowar Wastes.

Well, I think those are all the major clues and speculations about the new set, Ravnica. The only other thing that’s been pretty big over at MTGSalvation has been trying to link the correct guild symbol to the certain guild. Mainly, the Flaming-Fist has been confirmed to be the symbol for the Boros Legion. And the Candelera Bush has been confirmed to be the symbol for the Selesnya Conclave. The other two main symbols that are going to be in Ravnica (The Spider-Looking logo and the Pincer Insect logo - The two logos to the right that are backgrounded in black at the top), have been tossed up between the House Dimir and The Golgari guilds.

I hope you have enjoyed this article, as much as you seemed to enjoy the last one. It’s not so much about the Ravnica set, but more about the block itself. Hopefully, with these articles, I’ll be able to keep everyone, including myself, on track with the newest rumors and speculations. Don’t forget that you can be the one who finds these facts, instead of just reading about them later.

EDITORS NOTE: If you are part of the crowd coming to this page only for the latest and greatest rumors on Ravnica you'll notice right now I am only including the current spoiler in Fire Reign's articles. Articles are new to Magic Deck Vortex and I'm trying something new with this new set coming out. Fear not, the actual visual spoiler will be updated as soon as we have some card images, but...

While you are in the article sections of MDV I would encourage you to take a look around at some of the other articles MDV has to offer. You shant be dissappointed. Let me know what you think of Fire Reigns perspective on rumors for Ravnica in the forum (link above). Or/And let me know your thought on how MDV is presenting rumor information to you this time around.

Also, if you would like to write for MDV, send me an email Thanks for visiting Magic Deck Vortex.. a casual site that's more than meets the eye.