“Return to Ravnica” is the Magic: The Gathering expansion
being released in October of 2012. The full 274-card set has been spoiled, so
we can take a look at all the mechanics and the overall set themes.
The original Ravnica block was one of Magic’s most
well-received expansions, popular for both its interesting flavor reflected in
the block mechanics via the guild system and the impressive power level of the
cards, leading to a variety of fun and interesting decks emerging from the
block. Return to Ravnica promises us a satisfying follow-up to its predecessor.
RtR brings us back to the plane of Ravnica, a plane-wide city held together by
its system of 10 color-pair guilds, each with a particular job relating to the
upkeep of the city. The five guilds RtR reintroduces us to are the naturalistic
Selesnya (responsible for agriculture), the bureaucratic Azorius (responsible
for government and lawmaking), the insane Izzet (mad scientists, focused on
research and invention), the hedonistic Rakdos (dedicated to having fun and
blowing things up), and the morbid Golgari (who handle the sewers and
catacombs). Each guild has its own keyword mechanic to bring to the table and
some impressive creatures and spells.
Green-white Selesnya provides the Populate mechanic, which
propagates your creature tokens. This mechanic could prove quite beneficial,
especially in conjunction with the impressive creature token production that
the Innistrad block gave us. Azorius introduces the Detain mechanic, which
prevents targeted permanent cards from being used for a turn. Detain is exactly
what control decks want, conveniently, and un-coincidentally, in the blue-white
guild. Izzet, representing the red-blue cards, offers the Overload mechanic,
which provides options for casting a spell aimed at a single target or “each”
target, depending on how much you pay for it. Overload will be fairly useful in
control decks, where options are always appreciated, but fast decks won’t
really have time to build to the Overload costs. Black-red Rakdos provides the
Unleash mechanic, which lets creatures trade their ability to block for a +1/+1
counter upon entering play, excellent for aggressive decks. Finally, Golgari
offers the very black-green Scavenge mechanic, which turns your dead creatures
into +1/+1 counters, another excellent mechanic that will allow for agro decks
to have some late-game play by reusing their already dead cards.
Some notable cards in this set include:
-The reprinted Ravnica dual lands: offering both basic land
types and the ability to come into play untapped for a price makes the Ravnica
duals some of the most sought after dual lands since the original
alpha/beta/revised duals.
- The charms: Each color combination offers a multi-faceted
charm that has three different options whenever you cast it, allowing for
significant versatility
- The extensive gold selection: There are so many
multi-color cards in this set, significantly in some enemy-color combinations
(red-blue, green-black), which don’t get much support.
Good:
- Powerful creatures and spells, moreso than we’ve really
seen lately
- Rare color combinations in Izzet and Golgari
- Evocative and intuitive flavor and mechanics
- Very few crap-rares compared to most sets; most every pack
is likely to have something playable
Bad:
- Will be an expensive set to get ahold of!
- Many common cards are more underwhelming than usual, but
that’s only because of the high density of exceptional rares
Scully Rating: 9.8
out of 10