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It's Wednesday and that means it's time to go over the Black and Red cards for Guilds of Ravnica, but before we begin let's go over my grading scale.
I will not be going over cards that I believe will not see play in Standard. For example, cards like Flight of Equenauts and Tenth District Guard 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)
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2.5 - Blood Operative is a very grindy card that is also good against aggressive strategies. That is, only if Goblin Chainwhirler isn't the face of aggressive decks. Chainwhirler kills Blood Operative on cast and stops the lifelink with First Strike. I think Blood Operative will be a great Sideboard card. People will want it for aggressive matchups but then slowly realize how much better it is against control matchups where the regrowth ability and the exile a card from a graveyard ability are both very powerful. |
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2 - Free spells are powerful and Creeping Chill is free when it is milled. If you can find a way to mill yourself quickly and cast Narcomoebas / Creeping Chills then re-buy them with Enhanced Surveillance, you got yourself a fun deck. You could even use something like Drowned Secrets to try and mill yourself faster. |
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2 - Dead Weight is a slow but decent removal spell. It's always been played in the past when it was legal in Standard. You can't play too many of them since they are terrible mid to late game, but they buy time against the aggressive decks. Solid Sideboard card. |
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3.5 - Doom Whisperer is not an auto include in every Black deck, but it is still very good. It's in a spot where it has a solid ability but it's also at the top of your curve. It costs 5 mana and plays right into Vraska's Contempt and Teferi, Hero of Dominaria. Everything dies to Assassin's Trophy but if you get a land, you can't stack your deck with surveil. It also dies to Justice Strike, basically every deck can deal with him cheaply or easily on curve. Something like Lyra Dawnbringer also dies to Justice Strike but at least she'll gain you five life before going to the graveyard. Doom Whisperer will still see play in Standard, it's just not the end all be all. |
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2.5 - Gruesome Menagerie is best in an aggressive deck instead of a self-mill / dredge deck. Buying back your zombies is great. Maybe even some   aggressive deck where you get back Goblin Banneret, Goblin Cratermaker, and Goblin Chainwhirler / Legion Warboss. It's a fine main deck or Sideboard card for these decks depending on how the metagame shapes up. |
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2 - I do not think Mausoleum Secrets will see much play in Standard. I believe it's a better card for older formats. When it does see play, it won't be a central card in Standard. Instead just a one or two of in a midrange deck. |
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2.5 - Grim Haruspex is back, except this time it hurts you but also triggers off itself. This seems like a solid curve into Vraska, Golgari Queen and sacrifice something, like Stitcher's Supplier to draw two cards and mill yourself three. It also has a relevant creature type in zombie. |
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2.5 - Great against both Rekindling Phoenix, Arclight Phoenix, Underrealm Lich, Blood Operative, and anything else that you can re-buy from the graveyard. Solid removal for the Golgari/x decks. |
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2.5 - Fleshbag Marauder saw play and this is just a better Fleshbag. It also triggers Journey to Eternity and works extremely well Atzal. You can soft lock your opponent out of the game when they are hellbent by activating Atzal, Cave of Eternity on their draw step to force them to discard the card they drew. Plaguecrafter won't be everywhere but it will see play, especially since Doomfall is also gone and he answers things like Vine Mare and Carnage Tyrant. |
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2 - I don't see Price of Fame replacing Vraska's Contempt main deck. It is more of a Sideboard card than anything. Control/midrange might play one or two copies main deck if legendary creatures are saying a lot of play in the meta. |
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3 - Consume the Meek saw a good amount of play and while this is a Sorcery, it also costs one less. Great card for nonwhite control decks to have access to. They have Vraska's Contempt for the bigger stuff but nothing really for the smaller creatures. This may make Sultai Control a thing in Standard. |
Top 5 Black Cards
The top four are all really close to each other. So, Black has the best cards that we've seen so far but we still have Red and Green to look at along with the multicolored cards. Overall, everything looks of average power level in Black and I personally like that. Nothing is broken and that means more cards will see play since they are all so close to the same power level.
Next up, let's look at what Red has to offer from Guilds of Ravnica.
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3 - Competing against Rekindling Phoenix isn't really where you want to be, but Arclight Phoenix is different enough that some decks might want it over Rekindling Phoenix or even alongside it. It could be an alternative win condition for a Primal Amulet burn deck either in the main or Sideboard. Having haste is big and is the only reason someone might pick it up over Rekindling Phoenix. |
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2 - 4 mana is too much for this, it threatens to kill the opponent if you untap with it but so does Guttersnipe or Primal Amulet. The only place we might see this is in a deck with Maximize Velocity and/or Runaway Steam-Kin to try and play an Erratic Cyclops and kill you on the same turn. |
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2.5 - People are hyped about this card, but I fail to see why I'd play it over Vance's Blasting Cannons. Both provide card advantage, but Blasting Cannons still allows you to play cards from your hand and has the upside of transforming into Spitfire Bastion if you so desire. If you reveal two lands in a row from Experimental Frenzy, you are just straight done with the turn. |
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3 - This is the go to 1-drop for most aggressive decks, especially ones that are a lot lower to the ground. It's great that it's not awful late game and that it can always Mentor onto smaller creatures. |
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3.5 - Goblin Cratermaker is what Mogg Fanatic grew up to be. He's almost always guaranteed to kill something bigger than him, from Legion Warboss to Karn, Scion of Urza. When we get to older formats he can even start killing Reality Smashers. Goblin Cratermaker is an excellent card that will see a lot of Standard play. |
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3 - An effective way to deal with Rekindling Phoenix and just an overall solid removal spell. Roast was in all sorts of decks in Standard as a copy or two. Lava Coil will be as well. |
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4 - Not as powerful as Goblin Rabblemaster but it is still plenty good enough to be all over the place in Standard from aggressive, to midrange, to the sideboard of Jeskai control decks. Legion Warboss is going to be a format staple. |
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2.5 - Every time we get a punisher card, it's better than the last one and people think it will see play. I do not believe Risk Factor is good enough, the only home it might fit in is in a The Flame of Keld shell where you can discard it early to The Flame of Keld and maybe deal six damage mid to late game. If you're copying this card with something like Primal Wellspring then you should already be in a good spot since you're copying all your spells. |
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3.5 - Was hoping Red decks wouldn't get too many good 2-drops but here we are. Not only does Red have Goblin Cratermaker but it also has Runaway Steam-Kin. The Steam-Kin grows from any Red spell and then later in the game shrinks down to give you an explosive turn where it goes right back up to a 3/3 or a 4/4. Another great Red card. |
Top 5 Red Cards
Gross... I take it back (sorry Black.) Red is easily crushing all the other Mono-colored cards right now. I didn't even get to list Arclight Phoenix, even though I gave it a three. We've been dominated by aggressive decks for the last couple of Standards and it doesn't look like that it is going to change too much unless the midrange decks get a lot of help from the multicolored cards. Time will tell!
All right, that's it for today. Make sure to tune in tomorrow when we go over the Green, artifact, and land cards in Guilds of Ravnica.
As always, thanks for reading,
Ali Aintrazi
Follow me @AliEldrazi
