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Welcome back to the Guilds of Ravnica Set Review, today we will be going over the Blue cards in Guilds of Ravnica. We will be seeing some Jump-Start and Surveil mechanics. While Green is technically my favorite color in Magic, Blue is a close second, so I'm pretty excited to dive into these cards, but before we start, let us go over my rating process.
I will not be going over cards that I believe will not see play in Standard. For example, cards like Wishcoin Crab and Watcher in the Mist will be omitted since they are just Limited cards and saying, "This is just a Limited card" repeatedly gets old rather fast. Don't worry though, I will be covering all the rare and mythic cards in the set. So, if you like a certain rare or mythic, it will be mentioned in the review.
Keep in mind I'm rating all these cards for Standard playability. I will mention Modern applications if I believe the card has some.
Each card will be listed by color, then alphabetically by name.
Each card will given a rating of 1-5. If a card would receive a 0, meaning it will see no play in that format ever, it's rating is left off the list.
Rating - Explanation - Standard - Examples
0 - Will never see play in this format (0 ratings are not listed).
1 - Unlikely to see play. (Light of the Legion)
2 - Could see fringe play, or occasional sideboard card. (Drowned Secrets)
3 - Commonly played, staple in a single deck, or frequent play in several decks. (Cast Down, Disdainful Stroke)
4 - Format staples. Sees play in multiple decks, one of the best cards in the format. (Seal Away, Settle the Wreckage, Rekindling Phoenix)
5 - Format warping. If you're in these colors, you play that card. (Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, Goblin Chainwhirler)
And we are off!
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3.5 - Control decks really needed a way to draw cards since they lost Hieroglyphic Illumionation and Glimmer of Genius. Chemister's Insight is an excellent replacement that plays very well with surveil. This card will see a ton of play. |
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2 - Devious Cover-Up isn't the best counterspell in the world but if you run two, you are almost guaranteed to not deck yourself. It's like Counterspell and Elixir of Immortality got together and this card came to fruition. |
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3 - Solid counterspell that happens to be insane with Teferi, Hero of Dominaria. Since you are casting Teferi, it means you are in the mid-late game and your Disdainful Stroke will be live |
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3 - Dream Eater is no Torrential Gearhulk. In fact, it's way worse at killing something in combat and the surveil 4 does not make up for the free instant in my book. All that being said, Dream Eater has flash and flying. I've seen control decks win with worse cards. Dream Eater will see play even though it is worse than Geargulk. |
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2 - I do not think a mill deck will be viable, especially with Nexus of Fate and Gaea's Blessing both being legal in Standard. The only place I see Drowned Secrets is in the Sideboard of Blue control decks to bring in against the mirror or against other slow midrange decks. |
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2 - Enhanced Surveillance really lets you churn through your deck. It is a good way to surveil Narcomoebas and re-buy them after they die. Control decks could play this as a singleton to reshuffle the graveyard in grindy games but I think Devious Cover-Up is overall better for that. |
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3 - Snapcaster Mage without a body is still very playable. Making your graveyard an extension of your hand has always been a winning strategy. While I do not think you can play four Mission Briefing as easily as you could four Snapcaster Mages, I still expect to see this card in several decks. |
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2 - Murmuring Mystic is a nice alternate win condition for the spell decks that are playing Primal Amulet, The Mirari Conjecture, or Thousand-Year Storm. The reason being it can't be Negated and it makes the birds on cast trigger. |
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2.5 - Narcomoeba can see play in a Sultai deck that mills itself with things like Stitcher's Supplier and Glowspore Shaman since it is a fine card to sacrifice to Vraska, Golgari Queen. Also possible that the card sees play in a Dimir Surveil deck if we get more surveil cards. |
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2 - Really fun to play something like Apex of Power off of Omnispell Adept, but I expect this wizard to make more of a splash in Commander than Standard. |
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2 - We have seen this affect before and it is usually not good enough. However, it does have Jump-Start which means you can just bin it and have access to it to copy a Dream Eater, Doom Whisperer, or some other big creature. |
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2 - Awful. So much worse than Think Twice, this card never nets you a card and it is slow. This spell needed to cost a single Blue in my opinion to be competitive. As is, I might expect it out of fringe decks but I do not think it will see Tier 1 play. |
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3 - Get ready to have a ton of your spells countered by Sinister Sabotage. It is the new three-mana counterspell now that Disallow is gone. It is even better than Dissolve, I really like Sinister Sabotage, mostly because it can bin a Chemister's Insight for value or just fuel your Search for Azcanta. |
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2 - Fringe   Surveil or Arcades, the Strategist deck. Thoughtbound Phantasm into Dimir Spybug is a decent curve but even then I do not believe it's strong enough right now. |
Top 5 Blue Cards
Blue's average rating is better than Whites, but we still haven't seen a card that I would rank as a four. Chemister's Insight is close but not quite powerful enough. Still, I am satisfied with what Blue cards we got from Guilds of Ravnica. We are in a multicolored set, so the multicolored cards are bound to be more powerful. Ravnica also has less mono colored cards than traditional sets.
Well, that's it for today ladies and gentlemen, make sure to tune in tomorrow as we go over the Black and Red cards in Guilds of Ravnica.
As always, thanks for reading,
Ali Aintrazi
Follow me @AliEldrazi
