Hello all!
This article series of five will be spread throughout this week, the first three articles discussing the newly added cards, Guild by Guild. I won’t discuss the rares, as they don’t have a big impact in Limited format strategies, and I’m not too comfortable discussing cards I haven’t played even once before.. The last two articles of the series will show you my analysis of the changes in the Draft format, and also how I try to find the right color combination in the Sealed Deck format, as you’ll have many options available with the many color fixers available.
To begin, I’ll show you my individual card rating system:
10: Bomb!
9: Excellent card
8: Great card
7: Good card (almost always play it)
6: Decent (feel free not to maindeck it, or side it out)
5: Fair
4: Deck-filler
3: Unplayable without crazy combos or circumstances
2: Just unplayable
1: …
On to the first Guild: B/W (Orzhov)!
Absolver Thrull
In any other format, Absolver Thrull would be a 2/3 body for too much mana, but the added effect is pretty good in Ravnica/Guildpact Limited. Ravnica didn’t have that many good targets for it in the common slot, as the Fists of Ironwood and Galvanic Arc-cycle had already done most of their work by just entering play… but the new set offers a cycle of common enchantments that power-up all their enchanted creatures. It’s not a problem to play it early when there aren’t any enchantments around to kill, because of Haunt — I have found the mechanic to be very versatile. If you have a constraining enchantment on one of your opponent’s permanents, like Faith’s Fetters or Stasis Cell, you should often haunt the creature that’s enchanted to prevent it from breaking free. If you don’t, you should play it on any creature likely to get killed, or a creature you can destroy at will (when you have a removal in hand for your opponent’s creature, or a sacrifice effect for your own).
The Thrull has some synergy with the many one-mana sacrifice effects in both Black and White (Caregiver, Plagued Rusalka, etc.), and this helps you to control the Haunt more effectively. Other than this, there are many ways to re-trigger the come-into-play, effect but it’s not usually an effect you’ll need more than once or twice per game.
7/10
Belfry Spirit
This card is versatile: it can function as Scatter the Seeds in a G/W-based deck, but the tokens will be a lot better in the late game since they fly. Also, it can act as a three-power flying creature that has some synergy with the many B/W sacrifice-effects. Against Golgari-based decks, it’s simply great. It can chump block many, many times, and it’s hard to get rid of because their removal package for fliers usually consists of Elvish Skysweeper and Black removal — all of which aren’t great at removing flying tokens.
7/10
Benediction of Moons
Gain two life? I don’t think so…
1/10
Droning Bureaucrats
At first, I misread this card… I’m sure many people did. I thought it said “X or less,” and therefore I thought it was absolutely great. It’s not that good, but I still like it a lot. It’s best compared to Sandsower, a card that seems to have an effect that’s too expensive to make it worthwhile, but it takes care of so many problems all by itself. Obviously, it’s a good and flexible card in the late game, and it’s good in the early game as well as it’s a reasonable defender and can hold off tokens and the many two-drops of Boros.
8/10
Ghost Warden
While not as good as Kabuto Moth, it still makes all of your creatures so much better. W/G, W/R and W/B have many smaller creatures that now can now trade up instead of staying on defense, only hoping to trade at some later point. It follows the rule that re-usable creature enhancements (usually equipments, but also cards like this and Kabuto Moth) are more likely to make the difference in creature combats when there aren’t too many of them.
8/10
Guardian’s Magemark
While it’s true that most decks have a few enchantments to support this card, I personally don’t like it at all. Unless you already have an Aura on one of your guys, and two of your guys would get killed exactly in combat, it’s a simple Battlegrowth. Even when it works out as a two-for-one, your attacks get more awkward as sending in your creature enchanted with the Magemark might shrink your other enchanted creatures enough to get them killed. In short: sometimes it’s effect is like Seeds of Strength, but more often than not this effect isn’t too exciting for a three-casting cost combat trick.
4/10
Harrier Griffin
If you have a few other offensive creatures, the tap will be that much better to help you win any damage race. It suddenly becomes very hard for your opponent to keep his creatures on defense, forcing him to engage in a race. It excels against the slower Green decks without many blockers for your flying creatures; it’s usually a card they need to take out with spot removal to stand a chance against a flying force.
8/10
Lionheart Maverick
The only reason to play it would be to fill up the one-slot, but there are many creatures in the format that fill that spot and have a useful ability. Lionheart Maverick is not powerful enough to ever make my deck.
2/10
Martyred Rusalka
Against anything other than flying creatures or trample creatures, it’s strictly worse than chump-blocking. Your opponent’s creature won’t even get tapped. The card might be good in certain race-situations but it is way too situational.
3/10
Order of the Stars
Knowing that the majority of the decks will have three or four colors in them makes Order of the Stars not good enough for the main deck, but it is a reasonable sideboard option against Green decks without too many trample-effects. Against such decks, your game plan should be to slowly drain them with the new Black/White cards or attack with evasive creatures, and the Order helps you to control the ground.
5/10
Shadow Lance
I’m not too fond of Auras as they expose you to two-for-one trades, but when your opponent does not have the necessary removal spell for the creature you enchant with Shadow Lance it becomes very hard for your opponent to kill it by blocking, or survive when not blocking. The Lance rapidly decreases your opponent’s life total. It’s a risky card, meaning that if your deck isn’t very powerful you could run this hoping it’ll work out for the better.
6/10
Shrieking Grotesque
I won’t discuss this card in too much detail, as it should be obvious to anyone that it’s a great card, even in Golgari-decks splashing White as flying creatures are that deck’s main problem.
8/10
Sinstriker’s Will
In general, enchant creature Auras that need to stick around to have an effect are not good, as they expose you to 2-cards-for-1 trades, but Sinstriker’s Will has a very powerful effect. Once you have it active and your opponent doesn’t have anything to deal with it, it can win you the game right there. This being said, you should only maindeck it if you have to, and it’s a great sideboard option against decks that don’t have a lot to take care of your creatures.
5/10
Skyrider Trainee
It’s a decent twenty-third card, and it obviously becomes better when you have some Auras to put onto it, but you should never pick it highly.
6/10
To Arms
As a combat trick it’s pretty situational, but when it does work out, it’s often a two-for-one. Fortunately, this isn’t the only use for this card: it has great synergy in the Boros-deck with Thundersong Trumpeter and Viashino Fangtail, not to mention what it does when you have Wojek Embermage. The best thing about To Arms is that it’s never a dead card, since it replaces itself.
5/10
Withstand
I try to avoid expensive combat tricks whenever I can, but Withstand also gives you card advantage, as well as replacing itself while gaining three points of life in situations when there isn’t a lot of creature combat.
7/10
Caustic Rain
Land destruction, especially four-mana land destruction, has never and will never be good in Limited. The only time I would sideboard this in is if I’m playing a very fast aggressive deck and my opponent has lots of Karoo double-mana lands.
3/10
Cremate
It cycles, and that’s the reason it’s possible to play it maindeck. It’s a reasonable sideboard card against Dredge cards, if you have room for it.
4/10
Cry of Contrition
Just like land destruction, hand destruction spells aren’t very good in Limited — they’re usually lousy mid to late-game topdecks. Sometimes discard spells are playable when they give you card advantage, and Cry of Contrition might give you that sometimes. There needs to be a creature in play though, and your opponent is usually the one who decides when your creature dies, so it would often be better to haunt your opponent’s creature. Discard spells are just most effective when you knock out the last two cards in your opponent’s hand after he’s built up some mana or defense on the board, as it’s more likely that his powerful spells are still in his hand. Having your opponent discard cards is all about timing, and it’s hard to control that with Cry of Contrition.
3/10
Cryptwailing
Yeah… well… it never works and is never worth the trouble…
1/10
Daggerclaw Imp
Quite a decent beater, but it’s not as good in this format because of the one-power flying creatures that just kill it (Surveilling Sprite, Courier Hawk, etc.) It’s quite easy to deal with for any deck but a straight Golgari deck, but I don’t expect Golgari decks not to play a third color in this format.
7/10
Douse in Gloom
This time round mono-Black gets “only” one common removal spell. It’s a great card, and I’m sure everyone will agree.
8/10
Exhumer Thrull
It’s a bit better in Sealed Deck than it is in Draft because of the difference in speed of the formats, but I still like it a lot in Draft simply because it’s pure card advantage. It’s not too high of a pick though, as you’ll often have to board it out (or not maindeck it at all) against aggressive decks.
6/10
Hissing Miasma
I haven’t played with this card yet, and it seems like it’s only good against token-based decks; against other decks with lots of smaller creatures like Boros you probably won’t be racing anyway.
4/10
Necromancer’s Magemark
For a three-mana creature enchantment Aura, you get two reasonable abilities… but an Aura that needs to stick around for the effect to last has to have an amazing payoff for me to like it. Necromancer’s Magemark’s effect is nowhere near amazing, and I’d only play it when I really have to.
4/10
Orzhov Euthanist
It’s not as amazing as some people think, but he’s always been a very decent man for me. In the early game it doesn’t usually kill anything, but it does often trade and makes one of your guys into a Stinkweed Imp, a card I like in any format.
7/10
Ostiary Thrull
I’m a big fan of cards with many different uses, and Ostiary Thrull is always useful: it doesn’t matter if you’re on defense, offense, or racing. This also makes it easy to splash when Black is one of your main colors, since until you have the White mana; you could still put it to good use.
8/10
Plagued Rusalka
As with the Ghost Warden, Plagued Rusalka helps decks with smaller creatures to keep the critters useful when the first fatty comes down and sticks. Obviously, its combat trickery is not as good as the Ghost Warden’s, but Rusalka can also help you to get rid of utility creatures like Thundersong Trumpeter, or nullify Stinkweed Imp.
7/10
Poisonbelly Ogre
This is another 3/3 body for five, with an ability that can be good in some matchups and horrible in others. This makes it the sometimes necessary late-pick deck filler… but it will hopefully only make your sideboard.
5/10
Restless Bones
Too much trouble for too small of an effect, and I have not boarded it in yet either. It might be good enough to sideboard in for a matchup with two really slow Black decks, but other than that I don’t see Restless Bones ever seeing play on my side.
3/10
Revenant Patriarch
This card seems to contradict its own uses. Its ability shines in a deck with many evasion creatures, as the many untapped creatures your opponent will have for a turn can’t block your men anyway, but such decks won’t get very excited by a 4/3 body that can’t defend. Nevertheless, the 4/3 will force a trade, and imagine what happens if you have Peel from Reality then. It has some great synergy with the Dimir guild, and it could also work in a W/B/x deck that slowly drains their opponent, but I haven’t seen such decks drafted yet.
6/10
Smogsteed Rider
It doesn’t give itself fear, so it’s like a Mortipede when you’re not playing against a Black deck… except that it doesn’t kill as many blockers. Also, it doesn’t have any great combos — like Mortipede has — with Strands of Undeath or Gaze of the Gorgon. And Mortipede wasn’t very exciting stuff anyway…
4/10
Agent of Masks
If you can play it on turn 4 or 5 consistently, it’s not bad at all, but a deck playing both Black and White usually splashes one of the two, so that doesn’t regularly happen. It often isn’t worth playing this out on the later turns.
5/10
Blind Hunter
A 2/2 flying body for four mana isn’t bad at all; add an almost guaranteed life drain effect for four, and you’ve got a great creature. It’s exactly what Golgari decks look for in a White splash: the deck has difficulty in dealing with flyers, and Blind Hunter gives you many extra turns in such a damage race. It’s also a great addition for the aggressive Dimir deck, as the deck often has trouble in finding enough offensive flying creatures, and it has great synergy with Peel from Reality and such.
8/10
Castigate
As I said earlier, I don’t like discard spells in Limited. However, if you can cast Castigate in the early turns consistently enough, it’s a decent twenty-third card. After the first few turns, it’s unlikely that you’ll hit a major spell, but against decks with many tricks or only a few “business” spells it has an added value of turning around someone’s game plan. A good example is a Selesnya deck with many early drops and token generators, a deck that relies greatly on a big spell like Overwhelm or Rally the Righteous: getting rid of the key spell they’ve based their game plan on will turn the game around heavily. Overall, it’s a fair twenty-third card for the maindeck, and a good sideboard card in some matchups.
5/10
Conjurer’s Ban
Unless your opponent is wearing reflective shades, stay away from it.
1/10
Mortify
It’s better than Putrefy. What more needs to be said?
9/10
Pillory of the Sleepless
Another excellent removal spell; it even deals your opponent some damage, it’s the best common the Orzhov guild has to offer.
9/10
Souls of the Faultless
I doubt there will be many decks that can consistently support Souls of the Faultless’ mana requirements, but if it does hit play early enough against any deck without too many flying creatures, it has a tremendous impact on your opponent’s offensive plans. Let’s say that it will block a creature with two power; this means that your opponent needs to be able to get at least four points of damage through before any attacks will result in an equal or positive life swing.
8/10
Mourning Thrull
On its own, Mourning Thrull is only barely playable — a 1/1 for two is just too easily nullified by a bigger creature — but when you have a few cards that can power it up, it can be a lot better. Grifter’s Blade, Shambling Shell, Ghost Warden, and so on are all cards that can change this tiny beater into a race-winning monster. It’s comparable to a Boros Swiftblade, but it’s a lot worse on its own than the double-striker.
5/10
Orzhov Guildmage
A perfect example of my favorite type of card: it’s good both in the early game as a 2/2 beatstick, as well as a late-game game winner. Be mindful not to let yourself get trapped in the “Nezumi Graverobber-effect” though, creatures like this remind me of people’s common unwillingness to see Graverobber as “just a 2/1” when the situation requires them to. Being greedy by not using your Guildmage (or Graverobber) in combat early in the game could cost you a lot of life and allow your opponent to kill you before you’re able to abuse the card’s abilities.
8/10
Orzhova, the Church of Deals
This is a clear case of a land that will make it into your deck only if your mana base can support it. It’s not nearly as good as some of the other Guild-lands, like Sunhome or Skarrg, but the effect can still influence a game significantly.
6/10
That’s all for the Orzhov Guild. My evaluations are, naturally, based on preliminary play in the Ravnica/Guildpact format, and are hopefully a guideline from which we all can debate, reach consensus, and build clear opinions.
Be sure to tune back in later this week for more Guild-reviews and analysis on the new Limited format!