Hi, everyone, and welcome back to Daily Arena!

Ravnica Allegiance released to Magic Arena last week, and is available for Draft and Sealed. To help people prepare, I thought I’d supply some links to good resources for players new to the format, as well as some information condensed from some of those resources.

First, Ryan Saxe has a good article discussing this format’s mechanics in Limited:

Understanding Ravnica Allegiance Mechanics in Limited

Another thing to check out might be The Draftaholics Anonymous rankings for Pack 1 Pick 1 choices for Ravnica Allegiance.

As well as The LR Community Review, with ranking based on hundreds of user-submitted Limited grades for every card in the set.

Limited Resources is a great resource for limited players in general. Their Ravnica Allegiance Set Review: Commons and Uncommons contain in-depth card-by-card reviews and discussion from Marshall Sutcliffe and Luis Scott-Vargas.

Luis Scott-Vargas has a series of limited set reviews for each set, and these are an indispensable resource for card evaluation. I will provide links to the relevant reviews here, then add aggregated versions of some of the most salient information below.

Ravnica Allegiance Limited Set Review: White

Ravnica Allegiance Limited Set Review: Blue

Ravnica Allegiance Limited Set Review: Black

Ravnica Allegiance Limited Set Review: Red

Ravnica Allegiance Limited Set Review: Green

Ravnica Allegiance Limited Set Review: Azorius

Ravnica Allegiance Limited Set Review: Gruul

Ravnica Allegiance Limited Set Review: Orzhov

Ravnica Allegiance Limited Set Review: Rakdos

Ravnica Allegiance Limited Set Review: Simic and Colorless

Here are some highlights/takeaways from the resources linked above:

Top White Commons

Bring to Trial

Summary Judgment

Syndicate Messenger

Top Blue Commons

Arrester’s Admonition

Chillbringer

Skitter Eel

Top Black Commons

Blade Juggler

Grotesque Demise

Rakdos Trumpeter

Top Red Commons

Scorchmark

Skewer the Critics

Spear Spewer

Top Green Commons

Mammoth Spider

Sauroform Hybrid

Titanic Brawl

Most Important Guild Commons

Azorius – Lawmage’s Binding

Gruul – Frenzied Arynx

Orzhov – Grasping Thrull

Rakdos – Get the Point

Simic – Aeromunculus

All Cards Sorted into Tiers, By Color

*

(SEALED)

(DRAFT)

Note: Very situational cards show up twice with a red asterisk. Another note: Cards that are better specifically in sealed or draft will show up twice marked withorin the relevant position in the table.

Some notes on situational cards (marked by red asterisks* above) from LSV…



Archway Angel

“This is a build-around for sure, as you need to gain 4+ life before it’s worth paying 6 for a 3/4 flyer. I’m excited about the Gate deck, as it looks like it’s getting a log of solid payoffs this time around.” – LSV



Rally to Battle

“In a creature-heavy deck, this has a very high ceiling. When it’s good, it will often be great, as you can easily get a 2- or 3-for-1 in combat. It’s pretty sweet that attacking with everything is hard to punish, since the opponent can’t even attack back without getting ambushed. The average deck will play this, and aggressive decks full of creatures will rally love it.” – LSV



Gateway Sneak

“This is a build-around, but an extreme one. I’d play this in any deck with even two Gates, as a 1/3 that draws a card on damage makes all your bounce and removal spells very dangerous. Once you have 5+ Gates, it becomes a sick threat and can take over a game with ease. Don’t assume only the Gate deck wants this–it’ll go quickly in most any Draft.” – LSV



Mass Manipulation

“The split ratings here are to convey how good this is in a normal blue deck vs. how good this is in a deck built for the late game. Paying 6 mana (4 of which is blue) to steal one creature is still pretty good, and most decks can swing that as long as you play 10 Islands. Where this becomes a flat-out bomb is when you make a ramp/control deck with a lot of defensive measures, and reliably cast this to take two creatures. That’s almost impossible to beat, and a very big incentive to build such a deck.” – LSV



Font of Agonies

“This is a build-around, and a pretty narrow one at that. You need 3-4 life payment cards before this even enters the equation, and even then it doesn’t seem all that great.” – LSV



Priest of Forgotten Gods

“Because of the steep cost, you can’t just throw Priest of Forgotten Gods in your deck, but it’s a potent engine when it works. Sacrificing two creatures is big, but you get a card and your opponent sacrifices a creature, plus you get 2 mana and drain them for 2. That adds up to a lot, and I’d look to be an afterlife-heavy Orzhov deck if I saw this early. This is a build-around worth remembering.” – LSV



Act of Treason

“Act is always a fun one. On the surface, it looks like an aggressive card where you take their biggest blocker and whack them over the head with it. As threatening as that may be, that’s not the best use for this, and this is a marginal aggressive card at best (because it’s pretty situational, and when it isn’t good, it does basically nothing). Where Act of Treason really shines (and gets a 3.0 rating) is in a deck with multiple ways to sacrifice creatures. Then it turns into a removal spell that gives you a free attack and the benefit of the sacrifice outlet, which is quite powerful. It’s also a card you’ll get late, because it’s rare that anyone else will want it.” – LSV



Flames of the Raze-Boar

“If you can reliably summon the spirit of the Raze-Boar (a.k.a. have a creature with 4 power), this card is amazing. If not, it’s an expensive way to kill a creature. I’d be fine speculating on this in general, and would be excited to have it in most Gruul decks and some Rakdos decks.” – LSV



Gates Ablaze

“I love this as a Gate deck payoff. In a deck with 4 or fewer Gates, Gates Ablaze is unplayable, and it’s only OK if you have 5-6 Gates. Once you get to 7+ this becomes awesome, and does exactly what a slow Gate deck wants. I’m looking forward to lighting people up with this one.” – LSV



Goblin Gathering

“By itself, Goblin Gathering is a little below rate. Not a ton, so it’s not a disaster if you have to run one, but definitely not exciting. Once you have 3+, Goblin Gathering becomes the real deal, and even gives you a reason to run some of the go-wide payoffs. I don’t think this is a huge build-around, but it’s a nice bit of extra action for a common.” – LSV



Gatebreaker Ram

“I’m loving these Gate payoffs. Outside the dedicated Gate deck this is wildly unplayable, but once you hit 6-7+ Gates it gets pretty broken. All you need is a 4/4 and you’re in the money, with anything past that being awesome. The Gate deck doesn’t need finishers all that badly, but this is still a nice pickup once you’re doing the thing.” – LSV



High Alert

“High Alert is unplayable in most decks and doesn’t even seem that great if you build around it. It does buff some of your Azorius creatures, but spending a card on that and having it only work on a subset of creatures isn’t where I want to be. Maybe I’ll change my mind once someone makes the three Concordia Pegasus + three Knight-Arbiter deck, but I’m not sold right now.” – LSV



Nikya of the Old Ways

“The asterisk there indicates that some decks just can’t play this card. If you have Nikya, I’d look to play 2-4 spells max, and hope you can use them in the early game. This effect is super powerful, and I think very good. Turn 5 Nikya, turn 6 dump your hand of creatures is a nice play pattern, and it isn’t like the opponent can ignore a 5/5 either, so you will unlock your spells. I could see Nikya being an even bigger bomb, deckbuilding constraints and all. Note that you can use the extra mana on adapt, which is absurd, too.” – LSV



Teysa Karlov

“A 2/4 for 4 impacts the board enough that I would be fine running this with just a few afterlife cards, and once you have 4+ then Teysa becomes quite good. There are also a couple other scattered death triggers around, and she works with those too.” – LSV



Biomancer’s Familiar

“In a heavy adapt deck, this card is nuts. Your creatures all get insanely big, and it makes adapting incredibly efficient. I’d run this with even one other adapt creature, and with multiples this will be one of the best cards in your deck. Even in an adapt-light deck, your opponent may kill this just to be safe.” – LSV



Captive Audience

“As a 7-drop, not every deck is in the target audience for this, but it’s very strong if you can land it. I’d be looking to splash this in Orzhov control, or perhaps Gruul ramp, more than I would just jam it in Rakdos aggro. One thing to note is that putting the opponent to 4 is an effective threat even out of a control deck, as long as you have a couple creatures hanging around.” – LSV



Gate Colossus

“Unplayable without Gates, and quite strong with 5+ (ideally 6 or 7), this is exactly the kind of card I love. It’s the perfect finisher for the Gates deck, and a card nobody else is likely to want.” – LSV

Hopefully this will be helpful to someone who is playing this format in limited and needs some sage wisdom from the pros. It was definitely helpful to me to put it together.

As always, feel free to send any questions, comments and criticisms to me here, on Reddit, on Twitter at @DailyArena or on Facebook via the @DailyArenaMTG page.

Peace.



Joseph Eddy is a Father, Husband, Son, Brother, Software Developer, and Gamer. Magic is his favorite hobby, and he’s looking forward to seeing you all on Arena. He streams Magic Arena on a weekly basis (or more), but currently is unable to keep to a set schedule.