Hi, everyone, and welcome back to Daily Arena!

Guilds of Ravnica releases to Magic Arena this week, and will be 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, SEV8 has a good article discussing this format’s two-color draft archetypes:

The Limited Archetypes of Guilds of Ravnica

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

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 Guilds of Ravnica Set Review: Commons and Uncommons and Guilds of Ravnica Set Review: Rare and Mythic Rare 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.

Guilds of Ravnica Limited Set Review: White

Guilds of Ravnica Limited Set Review: Blue

Guilds of Ravnica Limited Set Review: Black

Guilds of Ravnica Limited Set Review: Red

Guilds of Ravnica Limited Set Review: Green

Guilds of Ravnica Limited Set Review: Boros

Guilds of Ravnica Limited Set Review: Dimir

Guilds of Ravnica Limited Set Review: Golgari

Guilds of Ravnica Limited Set Review: Izzet

Guilds of Ravnica Limited Set Review: Selesnya

Guilds of Ravnica Limited Set Review: Artifacts, Lands, and Guild Ranking

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

Top White Commons

Luminous Bonds

Parhelion Patrol

Righteous Blow

Top Blue Commons

Capture Sphere

Dimir Informant

Unexplained Disappearance

Watcher in the Mist

Top Black Commons

Burglar Rat

Dead Weight

Deadly Visit

Top Red Commons

Command the Storm

Direct Current

Wojek Bodyguard

Top Green Commons

Generous Stray

Prey Upon

Siege Wurm

Most Important Guild Commons

Boros – Skyknight Legionnaire

Dimir – Darkblade Agent

Golgari – Rhizome Lurcher

Izzet – Sonic Assault

Selesnya – Rosemane Centaur

All Cards Sorted into Tiers, By Color

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 with (SEALED) or (DRAFT) in the relevant position in the table.

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



Demotion

“This may not look like it deserves a build-around grade, but it’s such a focused aggro card that I feel it warrants one. In an aggro deck, this is great removal, and will assist in you curving out an crushing the opponent. In a midrange or control deck, it’s close to a blank, and that explains the disparate ratings.” – LSV



Divine Visitation

“As far as build-arounds go, this one is divine. In a deck without token-making, this does literal zero, but if you can make two Angels you end up very far ahead. Sadly, the card file doesn’t support this all that well–white and green just don’t have much in the way of tokens, so I’m not convinced that this is something you can slam early. The best enabler is Sworn Companion, so if you have a couple of copies and see Divine Visitation, I’d go for it.” – LSV



Haazda Marshal

“By itself, Haazda Marshal is horrendous, and even in a normal deck with a bunch of creatures, it might not be good enough. But given enough support from mentor creatures and pump spells, this can be a sick threat. 1/1s for 1 get a lot better with mentor as a mechanic, and this plays exactly into that game plan.” – LSV



Healer’s Hawk

“I bet you’re all ready to hear about how this card is a trap and how you shouldn’t play it. Well, the bird is the word once you add mentor and convoke to the mix, so I’m actually high on the hawk. This isn’t bad by itself, and becomes great if you can get a +1/+1 counter or two on it, or tap it to convoke out something large. I suspect these will still be a tad overdrafted, but at least they are a good addition to your deck.” – LSV



Drowned Secrets

“This is a classic build-around, and a throwback to Dimir’s strategy from OG Ravnica. If you can pair this with blue jump-start cards and a good defensive deck, it’s a solid win condition, and punishing against opposing surveil decks.” – LSV



Enhanced Surveillance

“I’m trying to figure out what a surveil deck really does with this, and I’m not quite sure. You still need a good way to win because this doesn’t provide that, even with the ability to stop you from decking. Plus, surveil 4 isn’t that much better than surveil 2, so I’m not very excited about the prospect of Enhanced Surveillance (both in this set and in real life).” – LSV



Guild Summit

“I’m super hyped for Guild Summit. Making all of your Gates into cantrips sounds awesome, and there could be a sick deck there. I especially like that it pays you for Gates in play and ones you draw later, which makes this look like a strong incentive to draft that deck.” – LSV



Thoughtbound Phantasm

“In decks with a lot of surveil, this will be one of your better cards. Not only will it grow to threatening proportions, a cheap defensive body is exactly what a deck full of fiddly surveil cards wants. This is bound to be underrated, and I’m a big fan.” – LSV



Gruesome Menagerie

“If you end up with a couple of good 1-drops, this goes from mediocre to playable to quite exciting, so keep an eye out. It’s hard to set this up, but the reward is there, and getting a card and mana advantage is well worth spending 5 mana on. It also combos nicely with surveil, as you won’t need to have ever cast creatures before playing this.” – LSV



Severed Strands

“In a normal deck, this is not great. You get 2-for-1ed and the couple life you gain doesn’t make up for that. In a deck with a lot of good sacrifice fodder, this is premium removal, which is nice because you may pick them up quite late. As long as you have enough Burglar Rats and Muse Drakes, this will do the trick.” – LSV



Undercity Necrolisk

“Once again, how much sacrifice fodder you have determines how good this is. I do like that it’s a 3/3 for 4 base, but that alone doesn’t make it an exciting addition. Sorcery-speed sacrifice is also a lot worse than instant, as this won’t fizzle removal spells or get you value off chump blocks, so beware when comparing this to other sacrifice effects.” – LSV



Electrostatic Field

“In a heavy spells deck, this fulfills the role of defender and of finisher, all in one. I’m still a little skeptical of 0/X defensers in a land of mentor, but repeatable, unblockable damage is a nice thing to have on a 2-drop. This is no Thermo-Alchemist, as it doesn’t get a free point of damage every turn as a baseline, which is what’s keeping it from being a 3.0.” – LSV



Fire Urchin

“In a spell-heavy deck, this is a serviceable 2-drop. It blocks well enough and can attack as a 2/3 or 3/3 later in the game. That’s not exciting, but even the brilliant Izzet need someone to clean up after their experiments, or run errands, picking up whatever weird crap they need to run experiments with.” – LSV



Maniacal Rage

“Maniacal Rage is wildly unplayable outside the most aggressive of Boros decks, but it can steal games there. It’s vulnerable to bounce and removal, though the payoff is solid if you can dodge those. Remember that you can use this as a way to remove a blocker in a pinch, though it’s one of the more painful ways of doing so.” – LSV



Circuitous Route

“In a normal deck, this is exactly what the name suggests–not the most efficient way to get to the place you want to go. Casting a 4-mana ramp spell isn’t great when your curve tops out at 5. In a deck well-suited to take advantage of that ramp, this is a key part of the archetype, as ramping into 6s and 7s can be very effective. This also pairs well with card draw, as casting a draw two into a 4-drop is a perfectly good way to spend 7 mana. Between this and District Guide, there may be an uncommon-driven 5-color deck, though Urban Utopia and Lockets do provide some support at common.” – LSV



Urban Utopia

“In a normal 2-color deck, this is too expensive for what it provides. Remember, it isn’t acceleration, just color fixing, so it really only gets good once you are at 3+ colors.” – LSV



Vivid Revival

“I smell a win condition for a sweet deck here, as Vivid Renewal will seal the deal if you can get the full three cards back (and aren’t dead on board). I like cards like this, and feel that they are usually worth building towards. Here, I’d look to be a 3-color deck, though if the cards are flowing you may be able to pull this off with just one guild.” – LSV



Garrison Sergeant

“Once you have 3+ Gates, this becomes a premium 5-drop. Until then, it’s just a dorky lizard, one you wouldn’t trust to guard even the least important of entrances.” – LSV



Mnemonic Betrayal

“The build-around part of this is how controlling you have to make your deck for this to be good. It reminds me of something like Villainous Wealth, or Genesis Wave–you need a ton of mana, but the payoff is large. It gets even more effective against Dimir decks, as surveil gives you lots of action, though the main factor in whether this is good is if you can survive until you have 7-8 mana in play. I bet this isn’t great most of the time, but will be a good finisher for a very controlling deck.” – LSV



Firemind’s Research

“This is certainly a build-around, and one you have to really go hard on to see benefits. Like most R&D departments, there are a lot of costs before you get a payoff, though the payoff is quite big. It’s also great that it fuels itself, as once you start drawing cards, you find more spells, and so on, with each jump-start spell counting twice (that, I believe, is the joke).

Eventually you’ll have enough cards that you just start building a bomb, as most respectable research does, and this ends the game nicely too. I will enjoy playing with this, though I’d want 10+ spells, and for a few of them to have jump-start, before I started getting really excited.” – LSV



Thousand-Year Storm

“This is a lot of mana and setup to get a payoff, though it can do some pretty wild stuff given enough time. Casting three spells in the same turn will often win you the game, but that’s not going to happen all that easily, and you have to play a 6-drop that doesn’t affect the board to set it up. I’m low on this, though obviously I’ll try and go wild if I open one.” – LSV



Chamber Sentry

“In a 2-color deck, this is still pretty sweet. It’s a 2-mana 2/2 that can shoot something when needed, which is relevant at all stages of the game. It’s worth playing half-color Gates (like a Dimir Guildgate in an Izzet deck) if you have this, as extra counters are quite valuable. Once you can bring this back, it’s a win condition by itself, and will often come out as a 4/4 or 5/5, which is amazing. I’d definitely try and shoot for 5-color if I saw this early, as it’s a huge payoff.” – LSV

Relative Guild Strength

Selesnya, Dimir, and Boros all appear to be strong guilds, with Golgari and Izzet lagging behind.

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.

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.