Return to Ravnica is about to arrive. In the midst of spoiler season, we are bombarded by new awesome every day. We can hardly wait! As I was thinking about the new set, I remembered a lot of older cards from the first time we visited Ravnica a few years ago. There were so many good cards that many never saw the play they deserve. We missed some cards from that block. Let’s fix that!

In honor of the Ravnica block to come, let’s look at thirty-four cards from the first block that should elicit a second look. Get yourself ready—it’s Ravnica time!

Bloodletter Quill – I know this is an odd card, but this card is downright amazing in a format in which you begin with 40 life. (Read: Commander). Paying 1 life to draw a card really works there. With little mana needed to access the Quill, you can draw a lot of cards over just a few turns. You won’t mind losing 3 life for three cards. Plus, you can pull off counters if you have to. This one card turns into three after just two activations.

Bottled Cloister – This card was originally seen as very potent in a Burning Grafted Skullcap deck in which you drew extra cards, threw the burn at your foe, and kept going. This was another engine in those decks. That’s certainly true to this day, and you can find a lot of use for the Cloister there. But the Cloister is also good in any deck that has few to no instants. If you have an aggro deck heavy on creatures, artifacts, and sorceries, this is the card for you. Take another look.

Celestial Ancient – Just like the card two slots down, this card’s absence from enchantment-themed decks confuses me. A secret of many enchantment-based strategies is that they are creature-heavy. You have creatures for Auras, creatures that tutor, creatures that protect, creatures that draw you cards, and more. Shouldn’t this find a spot in such a deck?

Dowsing Shaman – You still see the occasional enchantment-themed deck at the table. It’s rocking cards such as Replenish, various Enchantresses, Bruna, Light of Alabaster, Academy Rector, and more. Then, I look and see a noted absence of this guy from Ravnica block. Why was the Shaman missed? If you are playing such a deck, maybe you should reconsider this card’s exclusion from it.

Flash Foliage – I like doing two things. First, I like not dying. Staying alive is important, and this is basically a Fog for one creature (unless it has trample). I also like to draw cards. Fogging a creature while also drawing a card is really important—I don’t lose a card, just the mana. This is a bit clunky because it makes a creature to block the attacker. You can use that clunkiness (that’s not a word). Consider this with Gaea's Anthem or Muraganda Petroglyphs. You could regenerate the creature with Asceticism or Yavimaya Hollow and keep it around. You could tap it with the next card on the list. You could trigger abilities that either enter the battlefield or leave it. This is a potent card.

Glare of Subdual – Blue taps stuff constantly. Ever since the printing of Twiddle, we’ve identified tapping stuff with blue. White possesses it occasionally. But an enchantment such as this is very hard to find in green and white. This is a high-quality card that really is effective in locking down creatures. For consideration, compare it to Diversionary Tactics. See how much better this turned out!

Hex – Black has recently become king of mass removal, with many cards such a Black Sun's Zenith and Life's Finale seeing print recently. Hex is an old one that didn’t kill everything and needed six targets to work, but it would surgically remove six threats from the table while leaving your own dudes alone. It only works in bigger groups of people because it sucks in duels or three-person games. If you have a bigger group, this is incredibly flexible removal.

Hunted Troll – Not only is it cheap, but the Faeries it makes are minor compared to your 8/4 bruiser with regeneration. Someone is made happy with the influx of four flyers, and everyone else at the table is sad that they are about to be attacked. This guy also has value in decks that can take out the tokens (such as with Aether Flash and Caltrops), decks that really want a big creature cheaply (such as with Pandemonium and Warstorm Surge), and many other decks based on ideas I’m sure we could brainstorm if we had the inclination.

Junktroller – It’s not sexy or anything, but I enjoy this guy. It’s an 0/6 wall that keeps people from hitting you, and it will either restock your goodies for another dance around the barn or remove an annoying card from someone’s graveyard, such as Life from the Loam, Genesis, flashback cards, and more. Either way, it has value.

Nullmage Shepherd – In decks with a large possibility of having out four creatures, this can be miraculous. It handles many problematic artificial things without worrying about paying mana or using up cards. Just tap four creatures to do it. You can use the Nullmage’s ability the second it comes down since the activated ability doesn’t contain a tap symbol. Repeatable removal in a color with a lot of creatures seems like a strong combination.

Pariah's Shield – I love this Equipment because it keeps you alive. There are many creatures you can equip this on to abuse it, such as Stuffy Doll, Cho-Manno, Revolutionary, and Mogg Maniac. Even a simple Beloved Chaplain will survive an entire attack by your foes. This is a strong item for your decks.

Perplex – Very few people want to discard their hands in order to force through a spell, so this is a Counterspell that works about 80% of the time in multiplayer. About 5% of the time, it’s a discard spell, and the remaining 15%, an opponent is top-decking and there is no hand to discard. It also has the powerful transmute, and you can find any 3-cost card from your deck. There’s probably something better. And if not, just hang onto your counter.

Pure // Simple – I like this card a lot in Commander metagames. To play it, you must have all three colors: red, green, and white. There are a lot of Naya decks out there for this. One side destroys all Equipment and Auras. We see the occasional Aura worth destroying, but the key is blowing up all of those Swords of X and Y that are seen everywhere. You’ll destroy Skullclamps, Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, and a lot more. The powerful half of that side alone makes this worth the price of admission. The other side blows up a multicolored permanent. A ton of Commander decks run multicolored cards, and with Return to Ravnica on the way for the next year, that number is going to jump considerably. Grab some of these.

Rakdos Riteknife – This is among the most flavorful Equipment pieces around. It has many values—first of all, you can tap and sacrifice a creature that’s about to die anyway. You can sacrifice a blocker or attacker about to perish in combat or a creature targeted by removal or even as a Wrath of God is on the stack. In addition, loads of decks have fodder that you don’t mind sacrificing to make the Riteknife better. Plus, you can tap the first equipped creature to sacrifice a creature, then equip another creature, tap it to sacrifice another, and so forth. It can sacrifice Goblin tokens, Faerie tokens, creatures with death triggers (such as Solemn Simulacrum), dudes with persist or undying, and more. Then, once you’ve loaded up a lot of counters on your knife, it’s a powerful piece of Equipment. And if someone offends you, just sacrifice the knife to force that player to sacrifice one permanent for each counter on your Riteknife. This is a nasty card in the right deck.

Seed Spark – My W/U Disenchant of choice is Dismantling Blow. My R/W option of choice is Orim's Thunder. This is my G/W option because it’s an instant and because it spits out two dudes. I don’t have a W/B option—sorry. You’ll just have to use stuff like Terashi's Grasp and Return to Dust.

Silhana Starfletcher – Suppose we are enjoying Quirion Elves. We are looking for something similar. This costs 1 more mana and still taps for one color of mana you name when you play it. Plus, it remains an Elf for your deck to harness. For 1 extra mana, we receive 2 extra defense and reach. That’s good value for the card. Take a look at this common, and see if your deck can’t benefit from it.

Sins of the Past – Sure, it’s a bit on the pricey side of life, but it also allows you to cast any spell in that graveyard of yours for no mana. Then they are both exiled. Imagine you had the cheapest recursion spell in your hand of all time (Regrowth). You would have to pay the 2 mana for Regrowth and then the whole cost for the spell. You’ll spend 6 mana at least for something good that costs 4 or more mana; plus, most recursion spells cost more than 2 mana. You’ll usually be spending a lot more than 6 mana for your recursion spell and the recurred spell. Therefore, Sins of the Past yields a big discount, but since only works for instants and sorceries, that’s a fair tradeoff to my mind.

Stalking Vengeance – I adore haste creatures in multiplayer. I also enjoy dealing extra damage to something by doing nothing other than what was happening anyway. In this case, when another of my guys dies, I can smash face with its power to someone. Creatures die constantly; it’s a fact of life. So why not have them smash in one last hit of glory? (Imagine this with Ball Lightning!)

Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion – Of all of the uncommon lands from Ravnica block that have guild activations, this is by far the cruelest. Giving a creature double strike after it’s gone unblocked—or when you block that 7/6 flyer with your 3/3—is downright nasty. It doesn’t go into every R/W Commander deck I make, because occasionally, I need other lands more, but it fits into most of them. Some of the activated rare lands from Innistrad block are better, but to this day, this is still strong. I would play it alongside Slayers' Stronghold in a two-color Commander deck.

Tidespout Tyrant – I’m glad he’s still played some in Commander—this guy is awesome, but he doesn’t see enough play at the casual table. I also have seen a bunch of Talrand, Sky Summoner decks, and many are missing him, so spent a couple of bucks and buy him for every Talrand Commander deck out there; he’s worth it.

Twilight Drover – When this first came out, it saw huge amounts of casual play, and today, nothing. Ponder the fact that it uses two popular themes with casual players (counter and tokens) and plays well with things such as proliferate, various planeswalkers, the new Selesnya guild cards, and more. With all of that going for it, it needs a serious dusting off for your next deck.

Veteran Armorer – I’ve found a lot of decks for this bear to inhabit. Considering it ramps the defense of your team by 1, it really helps creatures that are quick and dirty. Imagine first-turn Elite Vanguard and second-turn Veteran Armorer. Now your Vanguard can swing and not worry about the Arbor Elf someone just played. You’ll be surprised by how often a simple +1 to defense matters.

Vulturous Zombie – This Plant Zombie is confused; which side is it on? Yours! In multiplayer, cards hit the graveyard with alacrity. Whether it’s a card cycled, milled, played, or killed, you see a lot of cards hitting the ’yard. Netting a +1/+1 counter for each of those cards makes this flyer a powerful game-changer. After a few turns, it often becomes a player killer with enough power to slay in one hit.

Walking Archive – For those people who swear by Howling Mine effects, this is among the best. It fits into any deck, and if you are playing white and blue, you can add counters to force folks to draw even more cards. This has an extra value that the Mine does not. Because it’s a 2/2 defender, opponents who like drawing cards won’t attack you with ground creatures because of the risk you might block with this. It acts as a rattlesnake to keep away many ground pounders. That extra power gives it a little spice.

Windreaver – This card remains really good in the deck for which it was designed. Play it in your next W/U Commander deck, and just see if you like it. This is a creature that plays better than it looks. Remember the self-bounce ability it offers to dodge mass removal and such; that’s part of its usefulness. It’s usually not enough of a threat to witness targeted removal arrive at its door, especially since many foes will view that as a wasted card since you’ll just bounce it to your hand anyway.

Wrapping Up

Today, we looked at thirty-four cards printed in Ravnica block that a lot of people either missed or forgot. I hope that we sparked your attention with them today. Return to Ravnica is almost here, and like many of you, I can hardly wait!

See you next week,

Abe Sargent