Everybody looks at a card differently. When you or I look at a card from Return to Ravnica, we each observe something different. A long time ago, a famous multiplayer writer named Anthony Alongi wrote an article in which he took ten cards from Judgment and created three ways of looking at that card—synergies from new school, old school, and then very old school.

We are making one change, however. Using ten cards from Return to Ravnica, I will be comparing cards from five different ages of Magic to uncover some synergies for you. After all, Magic is a lot older now than it was in 2002 when Alongi published this article. So, we have five categories for you. They are:

• Elementary School – Standard
• Junior High – Back through Shards of Alara – the Mythic Era
• High School – Back through Mirrodin, the Modern Era
• College – Back through Mercadian Masques, the Middle Era
• Grad School – Back through Limited Edition Alpha, the First Era

The goal of this article is to find something here that sparks your deck-building juices. Let’s begin!

Eyes in the Skies

Elementary School – Play it with other populate cards from Return to Ravnica to have a lot of fun spitting out creature tokens!

Junior High – Populating an Ajani Goldmane token? That’s just broken.

High School – I have two words for you: Doubling Season. I also have a question: If I populate a token from Tatsumasa, the Dragon's Fang, when the cloned token dies, does Tatsumasa come back if the original token is still in play? Because if it does, that’s a little combo we have there.

College – You could look at populate and something like Voice of the Woods. But I prefer to look at Birds and consider the combination of this with Battle Screech, Soulcatchers' Aerie, and Kangee, Aerie Keeper.

Grad School – Birds? Did someone say Soraya the Falconer?

Daggerdrome Imp

Elementary School – Rogue's Passage will guarantee this cute li’l fellow will hit for damage to drain the life right from your foe!

Junior High – Unscythe, Killer of Kings. Not only will it give this awesome guy first strike and a nice boost, but creatures killed by it are exiled and you spit out a 2/2 dork.

High School – Empyrial Plate would make a powerful flink creature for the early game (flying + lifelink = flink). Another angle is to play Well of Lost Dreams.

College – Reckless Charge will pump it in the front and give it haste so it attacks out of nowhere. Plus, it will linger in your graveyard for another go later.

Grad School – Ever heard of Howl from Beyond?

Lobber Crew

Elementary School – Play it with Pyroconvergence in a Return to Ravnica deck that emphasizes multicolored spells.

Junior High – Since we want gold cards, look no further than the bazillions of choices from Shards block. You can add a lot of quality stuff here . . . 

High School –  . . . Plus, if you add Shadowmoor and Eventide, you can make this deck mono-red and just run red with hybrid cards to trigger these two cards.

College – I think it would be interesting to add untapping to the Lobber Crew with something simple—like Aphetto Alchemist, Seedborn Muse, or . . . 

Grad School –  . . . Seeker of Skybreak and maybe even Puppet Strings.

Deadbridge Goliath

Elementary School – Use the many tricks from Innistrad to stock up that graveyard. Perhaps you might consider Mulch, since it’s in color. Then scavenge away!

Junior High – Since you are pumping up a creature anyway, consider something that will do something nasty when it’s pumped in the front. Good examples include Hunter's Insight and . . . 

High School –  . . . Cold-Eyed Selkie. It’s a no-brainer that dredge works really well with scavenge because it puts the creatures in the graveyard to be used. Instead, look at Riftsweeper to shuffle it back into your library after you have exiled it to scavenge. This is especially useful if you are using tutors to pull it out—tutors such as Jarad's Orders and . . . 

College –  . . . Buried Alive, baby!

Grad School – Say “hello” to a card so powerful it’s banned in some formats: Hermit Druid.

Blistercoil Weird

Elementary School – Combine with another cheapie: Nivmagus Elemental. Cast the spell to pump the Weird, and then exile it to pump the Elemental.

Junior High – Kiln Fiend is a good ally for the Weird. Pyromancer Ascension is another partner in crime.

High School – “Weeeeeeeee,” say the Dragonauts. See also: untapping Gelectrode.

College – Quirion Dryad will permanently grow.

Grad School – If you are going to play cheap spells to Fork, Lightning Bolt is where you are going to start. You also have Mana Drain and Counterspell to run if you have pushed into blue.

Sphinx's Revelation

Elementary School – If you want to stay alive after playing this, might I recommend some cards such as Martial Law, Supreme Verdict, and Hover Barrier?

Junior High – Jace's Erasure will force a lot of milling from a foe. Lorescale Coatl will net a ton of counters. Psychosis Crawler not only inflates but also nets you some nice life. But the really nasty card from the Mythic Era? Sanguine Bond. Ouch!

High School – Hoofprints of the Stag basically loads up with enough counters to go off. Diviner's Wand will also turn a creature into a beast for just a turn. Let’s also not forget what the first Niv-Mizzet has to say about this or Ageless Entity’s power and toughness. My favorite cards from this era, though, are the pair of Boon Reflection and Thought Reflection.

College – Play this with some of the great W/U control cards of this era to better enable yourself to survive in addition to the first group of cards. Rout, Absorb, Commander Eesha, Dismantling Blow, and more all suggest themselves.

Grad School – Multani, Maro-Sorcerer will grow bigger, as will Serra Avatar, but in a different way. Continuing in the previous vein, you have Kor Haven, Maze of Ith, Wrath of God, Forbid, and Swords to Plowshares.

Ethereal Armor

Elementary School – Combine with the Auras from this set to make creatures (i.e. Security Blockade) and good enchantments such as Martial Law.

Junior High – Sigil of the Empty Throne is an obvious inclusion because it works so well.

High School – Greater Auramancy can protect your other enchantments and creatures quite well, but it grants shroud and prevents further enchanting of them. Combine it with Enchanted Evening to really force foes to keep away.

College – I like using Enchantress's Presence to draw cards, since it is an enchantment itself.

Grad School – Classics such as Verduran Enchantress and Rabid Wombat mix with Fastbond and Exploration and Gaea's Touch for pure nasty.

Doorkeeper

Elementary School – The reprinted Fog Bank is an amazing defender. You can also use cards such as Hover Barrier to build up. Don’t forget some other defender mechanics in Return to Ravnica, such as Axebane Guardian. I like Manor Gargoyle since it can be made to swing later.

Junior High – Clearly, the defender theme in Rise of the Eldrazi is a place to look first. Vent Sentinel is amazing. You have a lot of walls, and my favorite may be Wall of Omens. Perimeter Captain is also a sexy card for this sort of deck. You can go back a block for Wall of Denial.

High School – Steel Wall is the classic 1-drop wall for any color. Wakestone Gargoyle is a nice option in case you are unable to mill with the Doorkeeper.

College – Wall of Mulch will sacrifice Walls for cards. If you are building a Wall deck instead of a defender deck, it’s a card you really want to consider. Sunscape Familiar not only comes down quickly, but speeds up the blue you’re playing.

Grad School –Jungle Patrol taps to make Wall tokens. Shifting Wall makes a potent Wall to keep back attackers for fear of death at any point in the game. Snow Fortress is a lot better than people think. The powerful Stronghold cycle of 2-mana Walls has some of the best defenders ever printed in their respective colors.

Drainpipe Vermin

Elementary School – Combine with cool sacrifice outlets such as Gobbling Ooze, Skirsdag Cultist, Corpse Traders, or Grim Backwoods. While you are sacrificing it, load up Jar of Eyeballs.

Junior High – I like the idea of starting a Birthing Pod chain with this guy. Or just draw cards with Carnage Altar.

High School – Take a look at Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker for a nasty little combo engine. Sacrifice and repeat. It won’t be long until everyone is out of cards save you.

College – Mind Slash will also force a discard and allow you to generate a second discard off the Rats’ trigger.

Grad School – Goblin Bombardment wants to be heard. See also: Attrition and Recurring Nightmare. You could even feed it to Lord of the Pit; it’s content to snack on a Rat for now.

Collective Blessing

Elementary School – Play it with a lot of cheap Selesnya-colored token makers, such as Eyes in the Skies, Seller of Songbirds. It also works well with Attended Knight. This way, you enjoy multiple bonuses to power and toughness per card.

Junior High – Martial Coup will kill everything and make an X-ton of 4/4 Soldiers with this in play.

High School – Since you are making a lot of creatures anyway, a card such as Glare of Subdual will allow you to tap a few to lock down any troublesome blockers while you swing in with that big, bad army. One Dozen Eyes is a nice surprise. (Rhymes are awesome when discovered accidentally!)

College – Decree of Justice is your friend.

Grad School – Want to be really scary? Play Overrun! It’s still a game-winning card. Deranged Hermit will also add to the token madness.

I hope you enjoyed today’s investigation of how five different eras of Magic consider ten different cards from Return to Ravnica. Let me know what you thought, not only of the article, but of the general idea of occasionally poaching ideas from older writers for my columns.

See you next week,

Abe Sargent