Ravnica Limited

MatthewVII

here's what ive learned about the limited ravnica format from playing in the prerelease:

Cards that were better than they looked:
Golgari Brownscale
Golgari Rotwurm
Benevolent Ancestor
Dimir House Guard

Cards that were as good as they looked:
Veteran Armorer
Transluminant
Last Gasp

Cards that were worse than they looked:
Woodwraith Strangler
Gaze of the Gorgon
Golgari Guildmage
Selesnya Evangel

It also appears that red is an awful colour in ravnica, with blue being slightly better, possessing many nice cheap flyers and evasion, as well as the mightily powerful Compulsive Research.
Dredge is the best guild mechanic by far
Transmute isnt as good as it looks, screwing over your curve big time
Radiance is ok, but can only be used in a weak archetype (R/w)
Convoke is handy enough, especially for Siege Wurm, Conclave Equenaut and Guardian of Vitu-Ghazi

sionnach

MatthewVII wrote:

Cards that were worse than they looked:
Woodwraith Strangler
Gaze of the Gorgon
Golgari Guildmage
Selesnya Evangel

I have to disagree with you about the last three on that list. I used gaze of the Gorgon several times to great effect.

Golgari guildmage is a very solid card, a 2/2 for 2 mana is a decent addition to any sealed deck, and it's abilities come in very handy late game. I won the deciding game in my toughest matchup of the day by playing a guildmage and adding a 1/1 counter to my flier in the 5th turn after time was called to swing with just enough damage for the win. I brought back my Twilight drover from the graveyard 3 times in one matchup using its ability upon which point my opponent conceded. It's not a bomb, but it's quite strong.

Selesnya Evangel, like the golgari gm, is not a bomb but once again, a solid card. 1/2 for 2 mana, you could do worse, and you can usually generate a token every turn. Having it on the board gives you much more freedom to attack as you have a continuous supply of chump blockers. In the slow games that ravnica creates, having it on the table decided quite a few rounds in my favour.


The main conclusion i drew from the pre-release was that fliers decided the outcome of almost every single match. There were so many tokens being generated and such a slow pace with well matched creatures on either side of the board that it almost always came down to who had the better fliers. After about 6 turns the ground battles would become a stalemate with it unfavourable for either side to attack. I was fortunate enough to have conclave equenaut and the fantastic vulturous zombie to win games for me. I hope the next set speeds up the block a little.

MatthewVII

I'm not saying the guildmage isnt a good card, im saying that there were many times when i would have preferred Veteran Armorer or another bear with a more immediately useful effect. The guildmage just ended up dying too soon before i could use its ludicrously overcosted effects.
And as for Selesnya Evangel, its too specifically costed to ever make it a truly good card

Cronus333

I liked the Golgari guildmage. it was warm and cuddly. Anywho... I thought he was good. He allowed me to choose between dredging back shambling shell for counters for my keening banshee or using him and drawing a card.

yay....