Top 8 Guilds of Ravnica Cards

Ryan Normandin
September 24, 2018
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Guilds of Ravnica releases October 5th! You can find pre-orders on sealed product here

8. Ritual of Soot

 

A sorcery-speed Consume the Meek for one less mana is in a particularly good spot in GRN Standard. Post-rotation, Monogreen looks to be one of the best options for a Week 1 deck. It’s powerful, aggressive, and picks up some new tools. With no Hallowed Fountain until Ravnica Allegiance, UW Control decks may not have the mana to stay competitive, putting Green in a good spot.

All that is to say that Ritual of Soot is important because it’s a fast sweeper that hits everything in the Green deck aside from Ghalta and the eternally frustrating Vine Mare. A card like this serves a valuable role in helping a control deck bridge into the late game. It’s not unreasonable to even wait until Turn 6 to cast this; holding two mana up for an Essence Scatter post-sweeper is powerful, and something that’s very difficult to do with five-mana sweepers, as seven mana is much, much more than six mana.

While powerful against Green, it will be similarly strong against the hypothetical Monored/Boros Aggro decks, Selesnya decks, and Knights. With Fumigate gone, Ritual of Soot, Settle the Wreckage, and Cleansing Nova are the best that control decks have, and Ritual of Soot appears to be well-suited for the predicted GRN metagame.

 

7. Hunted Witness

     

    This little guy flew under the radar a bit, but this effect is powerful. Doomed Traveler was a four-of in multiple White decks during its time in Standard, and Blisterpod was similarly a centerpiece of the sacrifice-based Cryptolith Rite deck. Replacing itself upon death is an enormous upside, and if you’re unfamiliar with this style of card, playing with or against it a couple of times will allow you to witness its power firsthand. 

     

    6. Sinister Sabotage

       

      Cancel with upside has long been the accepted template for competitive, three-mana counterspells in Standard. Scatter to the Winds, Void Shatter, Dissipate, Disallow, and Dissolve all saw play, but not all of these cards were created equal. Ignoring a couple of metagame-specific interactions, such as Void Shatter exiling World Breaker or Scatter to the Winds putting counters on Shambling Vent, Dissolve and Disallow have been the best of these. Why? Void Shatter and Dissipate both exile as their upside which is occasionally relevant, but doesn’t up the power of the spell all that much. In a vacuum, these are the worst of the bunch. Scatter to the Winds was a nice mana sink if you wanted it to be, but underperformed in a format that already had creaturelands. While additional flexibility in the late game is nice, you really want your upside when you’re casting it on Turn 3, which is when control decks need the most help. Dissolve and Disallow satisfy this vital requirement of helping control decks do a better job of getting to the late game. The Scry 1 from Dissolve helped control decks dig to either their next land drop, or whatever spell they were looking for. Disallow was simply enormously flexible, and in a world where the threats are incredibly diverse, a Disallow in hand means that you are largely guaranteed to be protected from everything. Disallow and Dissolve are, in my view, very close in power level, particularly in a vacuum.

      Where, then, does Sinister Sabotage fall? Sabotage is nearly a strictly better Dissolve, as it has all the advantages of Dissolve, but with the added benefit of stocking your graveyard, which is typically something control decks are interested in. While many hoped that the rotation of Disallow/Glimmer of Genius/Torrential Gearhulk would weaken control decks, our newest counterspell and draw spell (see #4) look to be at the very least on-par with what control is losing.

       5. Doom Whisperer

      Doom Whisperer has a lot of things going for it that, taken together, promise to make it a powerhouse of a card. As a five-mana 6/6, it’s above rate, and tacking on Flying and Trample make it a must-answer threat that laughs at Rekindling Phoenixes and Steel-Leaf Champions. It’s ability, however, is bonkers. With no mana requirement, no tapping requirement, and nothing else that prevents multiple activations the moment it comes down, it is clear that this card is pushed by R&D. Paying 10 life to put 10 cards into the graveyard if you want is incredible. I suspect that whoever first figures out how to best abuse Doom Whisperer is going to have a very successful weekend.

       

      4. Chemister’s Insight

         

        The default draw spells for control decks in Standard have fluctuated much more than the default counterspells. While the counterspell is nearly always Cancel with upside, the draw spells have included Dig Through Time, Divination, Jace’s Ingenuity, Glimmer of Genius, and Sphinx’s Revelation. While Dig Through Time and Sphinx’s Revelation were arguably too strong, Divination and Jace’s Ingenuity are too weak. Glimmer of Genius hit a sweet spot, in that it was instant speed, could be cast early in the game (but not too early -  you could still run into mana screw), and provided huge card selection without huge card advantage. Those who feel that Glimmer was too powerful are probably misattributing some of Torrential Gearhulk’s might to the four-mana instant, which it paired well with.

        In a vacuum, I’m not sure whether I would rather play Chemister’s Insight or Glimmer of Genius, but I suspect I choose Insight. While Glimmer does allow more filtering upon casting, Insight allows you to cast it again anytime you want. Flooding out? Dump a land and draw two. Removal dead in the control mirror? Cycle it for two lands. Consider how powerful the Amonkhet cycle-lands were, and now consider that Insight allows any card in your hand to obtain Cycling 3U: Draw two cards. In a format with Seach for Azcanta and Surveil, you can even toss additional copies of Insight into your graveyard without having to cast the front side, keeping it in storage for later just in case. Chemister’s Insight is the draw spell that Ux control decks desperately needed to replace Glimmer of Genius, and my insight is that it will be a four-of in all such decks moving forward.

         

        3. Pelt Collector

           

          Experiment One was great. Pelt Collector is even better. While some are quibbling over whether Monogreen wants four Pelt Collector alongside four Llanowar Elves, let me settle that by saying that yes, they do. And if they don’t, then the deck should adapt into something that can take advantage of this card because it’s fantastic. Curving out means attacking with a 2/2 on Turn 2, a 3/3 on Turn 3, and so on. The dies trigger means that cards like Steel Leaf Champion and Vine Mare with their five power are likely to trigger the Collector coming in and going out. Pelt Collector will demand an answer, and cheap cards that demand an answer before going out of control have historically been some of the most powerful (Bomat Courier, Warden of the First Tree, Fleecemane Lion, Experiment One). I’d be sure to collect a couple of these if you have any intention of playing Green.

           2. Knight of Autumn

           

          Here is where we get into the multi-format stars. Knight of Autumn is insanely versatile. It’s simply never a dead card. Playing against aggro? Gain four, trade with another threat or spell. Search for Azcanta on the other side? Bye-bye. Just wanna beat down? Take a 4/3 for three mana. The fact that, in scenarios where you’d use them, two out of the three modes are card advantage stapled onto a body, and the worst-case scenario is an above-rate 4/3, I’d say that Knight of Autumn is a winner. In Standard, this is also a Knight, which means it’ll be pumped by History of Benalia and any other tribal effects. In Modern, this will replace Reclamation Sage and will likely see mainboard play as a Chord target in any deck that is not restricted to monogreen. Commands are always valued highly because of their versatility; Knight of Autumn is a Command where the first option (create a 2/1 Knight) has been chosen for you, and the other three options are fantastic. This autumn, I’d get used to seeing plenty of this Knight.

           1. Assassin’s Trophy

           

          The true multi-format all-star, my super hot take is that Assassin’s Trophy is going to be the card in GRN that sees more play than any other, largely due to its applications in older formats. In any format where decks run a low basic land count, Assassin’s Trophy is fantastic and only gets better in multiples. Path to Exile is a common comparison, as it has the same drawback of providing your opponent a basic. In Modern, however, exile is extremely relevant, especially in today’s metagame. While Assassin’s Trophy lacks the ability to exile, it makes up for it with flexibility, answering literally anything you want. Teferi, Search for Azcanta, Tron lands, Ensnaring Bridges, this card gives BGx decks an enormous tool that will be handing them many trophies in tournaments to come.

           

          Those are my top eight picks for GRN! What did I miss? What cards are on your top eight list?