Return to Ravnica Visual Spoiler (Complete)
Posted on September 23, 2012 by General
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Nice
Look at Golgari Guildgate – if there is going to be a variant for every guild in Ravnica, I firmly believe it might introduce a new era in Classic Pauper! Particularly looking at Izzet variant, since I do believe this is going to be premium mana fixing. The only two contenders for that slot would be Terramorphic Expanse/Evolving Wilds and Izzet Boilerworks. Here is why I think this card is so infinitely better than those two:
Terramorphic Expanse/Evolving Wilds – You do not get to chose one color which you will fetch with these. It technically enters the battlefield tapped so there is no downside so far. The only thing you can say bye bye to is comboing this on the opponents turn to draw 3 cards with instant speed Mysteries of the Deep. But even then, how many of you even THOUGHT of comboing this, let alone did it in practice?
Izzet Boilerworks – The advantage of this card is the guarantee that you are going to have a land to play next turn and this can be pretty huge from my experience. This card is very good when you tap out on your turn and then play it because it’s downside in that case is almost irrelevant. However, if you wanted to keep your counterspell mana up and you had no other land to play on turn 3, then the downside slaps you right across your face. Not to mention that Izzet Boilerworks is the prime target for land destruction after Cloudpost because you practically get 2 for 1 for sniping it. RTR land, however, has neither of these problems. You do not get to play a land next turn but it’s still 2 pros against 1 con.
I know I will definitely going to slam the Izzet variant in my Cloudpost deck so hard that my core cards are going to fall out from the sheer force of the impact!
Am I missing something or does jace look a lot weaker than previous incarnations.
You are not missing something Lord, it is quite underwhelming.
It has the potential to be very amusing in EDH
EDH SUCKS rainbows…. STANDARD!!!
Wow, they are doing a great job of showing how far they’ve fallen since OG Ravnica. This set’s going to suck. The flavor on the freak is the worst thing I’ve ever seen.
Flavor text has only gotten better… remember Dauthi Slayer?
Way to judge a whole set based on one example of flavor text – as if Vorthos is the only type of player :/
amusingly enough, it looks as if dreadbore is going to be the premium spot removal now that both Doom Blade and Go For the Throat are rotating out of standard…. it may be 2 colors and sorcery but that’s still better than Murder.
So much awesomeness.
Jace looks terrible, but the text is too small for me to bother reading his abilities.
The original Ravnica is way overrated. This set looks fine so far.
Looks pretty fun if you ask me, but only time will tell. Ravnica was made so much fun drafting the whole block.
Translation from German on the BG Troll:
Lotleth Troll BG – Rare
Creature – Zombie Troll
2/1
Trample
Discard a creature card: Put a +1/+1 counter on Lotleth Troll.
B: Regenerate Lotleth Troll
@robber99: You clearly didn’t play with the original Ravnica. Drafting it this week has been an absolute nostalgic delight. Set is so well designed; every game I lose is completely my fault.
Except for Glare of Subdual and Skeletal Vampire. Asterisk those cards.
Actually I did play, and funnily enough I quit the game when Ravnica came out. I think it’s a classic case of groupthink.
Vraska looks like a lot of fun
Vraska is a super weird planeswalker. If you see her land under your opponent’s control, in some situations, I just think you don’t care and try to make do as two of your permanents get eaten slowly.
In my opinion Vraska is weird, but awesome looking. Getting rid of two permanents is nothing to scoff at. The plus 1 ability makes your opponent choose whether they want to lose a creature to get rid of her, or let her stay and get more powerful. If she stays alive, she creates creatures that win you the game. Plus, you can get rid of something threatening if you so choose. I think it will be a fun card to play though it may not see constructed play. Jace seems like the 2nd worst planes walker of all time, the first being tibalt.
This Jace is very good, certainly better than Memory Adept in Standard. (By far actually, due to costing 4.)
The +1 ability protects Jace, you and other Planeswalkers and is solid as long as you curved into him with removal/creatures.
The -2 gives you the best card in your top 3, sometimes with a bonus card if your opponent missevaluates the board, and the ultimate is gravy, but so are almost all ultimates.
The Gates will benefit Cloudpost decks the most in Pauper. Hopefully this will finally get Cloudpost banned in Pauper, since it is very bad for the format. Just like it did in Modern, Cloudpost makes all non-Cloudpost control decks and all mid-range decks unplayable in Pauper, so it should have been banned ages ago.
PlanetWalls, you can’t really just igonre Vraska even if she is activating the +1 on the first round she is summoned. She WILL destroy your two best parmanents whenever it works well for her controller. That is such a huge deal and could be such a blowout that allowing her to charge enough to activate her -3 more than once is just giving up your chance to win.
Uncounterable cards seem to be a theme in this set! Between the Wrath and the Smother+, things are looking rather interesting.
This collection’s gonna be LEGEN… wait for it
It’s not exactly smother, since it also hits planeswalkers, artifacts, enchantments, ….
That’s what the “+” was for
I probably should’ve put “super+”, haha
Loxodon Smiter = bad-ass
I don’t see how anyone will be up to three color shenanigans in this set. Who will have time with common 3/4s for three smashing in again and again?
Dougie, BR did seem to take the agrro nehich in this set, but from what little other commons I’m seeing, the other guilds require more “buildup”, that is they require either time (like Izzet who are control) or a board presence (Selesnya and Golgari who need lots of tokens or a graveyard full of creatures).
I wager we will see mostly 3 color decks.
the loxodon Smiter is annoyingly powerful.
Desecration Demon looks like a neat tool for shenanigans
I can’t wait to play this set in Limited.
Underworld Connections – BB1
Rare
Enchantment – Aura
Enchant land
Enchanted land has “T, Pay 1 life: Draw a card.”
@PlanetWalls
tyvm!
great!!! i get to dig out my dual lands but this set is going to cost me oh well!
Martial Law – Rare
WW2
Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, detain target creature an opponent controls.
Precinct Captain – Rare
WW
Creature – Human Soldier
2/2
First strike
Whenever Precinct Captain deals combat damage to a player, put a 1/1 white soldier creature token onto the battlefield.
Bell-toll Sphinx – Rare
UU4
Creature – Sphinx
5/6
Flying
Discard 2 nonland cards with the same name: Draw 4 cards.
Slime Shaping – Uncommon
GX
Sorcery
Put an X/X green Ooze creature token onto the battlefield.
I thought there would be more dwarves in this set
I was hoping to see the word “dredge” on a bunch of these cards. boo!
Wild Beastmistress – Rare
G2
Creature – Human Shaman
1/1
When Wild Beastmistress attacks, each other creature you control gains +X/+X until end of turn, where X is Wild Beastmistress’ power.
With Rancor around I imagine people will be playing with Beastmistress a bit
haha look at the artist for pyroconvergence….jack wang
Necropolis Regent – Mythic
BBB3
Creature — Vampire
6/5
Flying
Whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to a player, put that many +1/+1 counter on it.
So far there’s three pieces for fixing. I hope a lot more flows in.
Wait, what? There are going to be 5 dual lands, 5 gates, and the lantern at least – that’s not even counting M13 and Innistrad block. There’s PLENTY of fixing.
Any thoughts on Detention Sphere? Just seems like a jacked up Oblivion Ring… Im sure Delver decks need that…
Blistercoil Weird costs (U/R) by the way.
I REALLY like the untapping effect.
My first impression of this set, without trying to be sentimental about it, is as follows:
OK. I can tell Wizards feels bad about the fact that they couldn’t launch more commander sets for this year, so a lot of it had ended up in this set as compensation. I’m looking at the Planeswalker Jace and going: Yeah, Jace is designed to stall the game to make it last longer, because in multiplayer games his first ability will nerf the damage of all opponent creature attacks. However, this will get annoying so all the other players are going to attack the shit out of him. Resulting in no damage being dealt to any player. Stalling the game.
Suddenly, this set emerges with a barrage of spells that are uncounterable. Hell, Counterflux is a counterspell that is uncounterable! Ok, I get it, people want less spells being countered in commander. It’s a little too obvious to me. The current standard format is not having a problem with countermagic, unless you count Remove the Soul / Mana Leak in Delver. These uncounterable spells would have been great in 1998. 14 years ago. When countermagic was blue’s main gun.
More common dual lands that come into play tapped. Please Wizards…stop doing this. Stop making common dual lands come into play tapped. Almost ALL common dual lands come into play tapped. It’s getting old. I had high expectations of this set. I don’t care about that fact that they are “gates” that combo with other effects. Can’t we have a common dual land that comes into play 1/2 tapped? Great progress to be had with that idea….
Thus far, not liking the Populate mechanic. Here’s why:
Most good token generation spells printed in the past had the same casting costs as these populate cards. Remember Hero of Bladehold? Or how about Luminarch Ascension? Those spells are awesome token generators, with the same or cheaper casting costs than these populate cards.
The big token generation spells in this set are not very good. Slime Molding puts out an X/X vanilla slime. That’s it. No trample or anything. This stuff ain’t rocking my world, people. If it’s rocking your world, I’m genuinely happy for you.
I like Scavenge, because it allows for great comebacks. I like Overload, because it also allows for great comebacks or insures the advantage. I like the potential of Unleash, but right now it’s meh.
Ultimate Price is a card I would have hesitated to allow printed, because it’s going to cause player confusion. Artifact creatures do NOT count as mono-colored creatures. There, I’m sure I made a few people not look like an idiot in front of a large crowd. You can thank me later, at the expense of me making myself looking like an idiot in front of a large crowd.
I’ll have to see the rest of the set to make my final verdict. Right now…not the best. We’ll see.
I dont know how about formats like standard or legacy, but this will be OP like hell in EDH… Autowin in 6th round with vraska…
Desecration Demon WTF?
Not even legendary…
Brendan C: there are no common dual lands that come into play tapped. The ones from Invasion are uncommon. These new gates are awesome because they allow better mana fixing for pauper as well as limited. Also, you think it’s worth mentioning that Slime Molding is lame because it’s boring? Name a set that doesn’t have at least some boring cards in it. You sound like a grumpy old man. This set looks pretty cool so far in my opinion.
I generally agree with Brendan.
Ah, interesting insight. Thank you.
The entire spoiler is up and the overall impression is meh. Izzet fanboys will dominate the pre-release, but Selesnya is going to dominate. The card that is going to define this format is sadly a lot like the last format; Common Bond is the new and even more broken travel preps. Now you can target the same creature and it’s an instant? Why do the Wizards think this is a common effect?
@Jimmay: Travel Prep can also target the same creature, when you flash it back. Travel Prep only costs 2 mana for the same amount of counters as Common Bond, and if you pay another 2 (which doesn’t have to be the same turn, mind you) you get double that amount. While making it instant is quite good, I don’t think that quite makes it “more broken” than a card that gives you almost the same value for less mana or strictly double the value for only one mana more, distributed over turns.
Plus, Travel Prep was so broken because GW had a large number of already good creatures for 2 or 3 mana, meaning you could curve out, with let’s say turn 3 Lingering Souls, turn 4 Travel Prep + flashback attack for 6 in the air. It doesn’t look to me as if GW could benefit that much from those measly two counters in RtR.
Again, not saying Common Bond isn’t a good card. But it certainly isn’t nearly as good as Travel Prep was in DII, let alone “more broken” or “going to define the format”.
Corpsejack menace means that it will be more than two counters often enough and there is a ton of token production in this set. Not saprolings, grown ass centaurs, for two. The average power and toughness in this set is 3/3 for 3, meaning that Common Bond will regularly create blowouts out of trades. Format defining, yes. I know it sucks that the current state of design is to pump out sequels with new mechanics, but it is what it is. Magic isn’t about creating something new anymore. It is about making sure the new coat of paint is shiny.
Jimmay, in Limited, no single common is “format defining”. For a recent example, think of how good Mist Raven was in Avacyn Restored, and how well it worked with so many diffrent cards (namely blinking effects). It was still miles off of being “Format defining”. Return to Ravnica is, I think, a very intresting set with many avilable strategies that are both solid and possible to draft.
A single card, especially one that is nothing more than an awesome combat trick, is just not going to ruin anything. As for Magic having nothing new to offer – I think two recent sets (Rise of the Eldrazi & Innistrad) prove that Magic is growing and evolving all of the time, since they were probably the best sets, ever, at least for Limited.
Carrotus, you’re nuts if you think either of those sets were among the best ever. Ravnica was the best ever, end of story. Thats why boxes so for 500 a pop! Rise was interesting and very different but but once that novelty wore off you had a below average set IMO. The new and different style was tremendous but the overall quality was lacking a bit. Innistrad was as bleh as it gets. Calking it average is kind.