Magic Has Debased to This - Farewell Ravnica - Patrick 'Debaser' Breeden (9/18/2007)

Hey, everyone. I want to start this entry off by apologizing for not keeping up on my bi-weekly ´´Magic Has Debased to This´´ column, but I haven't forgotten about Cardshark. I do have at least two articles under the magnifying glass right now, and they should be on your screens soon. This entry is going to be a little different as I write about a dear friend that will be leaving the Standard format very soon: Ravnica block.

Ravnica was set to be the mother lode of Magic freshness. It would define the way we thought of and played Magic – or so Wizards of the Coast told us. There would be a guild for every two-color combination, and every guild would have its own mechanic! Whoa! Ten different mechanics in one block definitely promises for extremely different gameplay, but we all wondered how much change is this set bringing about?

The advertisements that Wizards began pumping out for the new set and the opportunities alone were driving us completely mad. Gold cards were making a return! Enemy colors were going to be good again! Would Pernicious Deed

Pernicious Deed
	Set: Apocalypse Cost: 3 Color: Multicolor Type: Enchantment Rarity: R Number: 114 Artist: Christopher Moeller Text: X, Sacrifice Pernicious Deed: Destroy each artifact, creature, and enchantment with converted mana cost X or less.

return then? Would Spiritmonger

Spiritmonger
	Set: Apocalypse Cost: 5 Color: Multicolor Type: Creature Sub Type: Beast Rarity: R Number: 121 Artist: Glen Angus Power: 6 Toughness: 6 Text: Whenever Spiritmonger deals damage to a creature, put a +1/+1 counter on Spiritmonger. B: Regenerate Spiritmonger. G: Spiritmonger becomes the color of your choice until end of turn.

be snuck in? The rumors were flying around like mad.

Wizards then looked over and chucked at the madness that was being thrown everywhere and decided to drop another explosion in the middle of it: a preview of Temple Garden

Temple Garden
	Set: Ravnica City of Guilds Color: Land Type: Land Sub Type: Forest Plains Rarity: R Number: 284 Artist: Rob Alexander Text: (T: Add G or W to your mana pool.) As Temple Garden comes into play, you may pay 2 life. If you don’t, Temple Garden comes into play tapped instead.

and a promise that every guild would have its own dual shock land. We would get these lands along with the already confirmed pain lands in Ninth Edition?! Three color decks would be easy as pie to make, and players could agree that the future of Magic would definitely be interesting and exciting.

After Ravnica came out and we were all crackin' away at packs to get our Char

Char
	Set: Ravnica City of Guilds Cost: 3 Color: Red Type: Instant Rarity: R Number: 117 Artist: Adam Rex Text: Char deals 4 damage to target creature or player and 2 damage to you.

s and Dark Confidant

Dark Confidant
	Set: Ravnica City of Guilds Cost: 2 Color: Black Type: Creature Sub Type: Human Wizard Rarity: R Number: 81 Artist: Ron Spears Power: 2 Toughness: 1 Text: At the beginning of your upkeep, reveal the top card of your library and put that card into your hand. You lose life equal to its converted mana cost.

s, we realized that Ravnica hadn't truly altered the game in the way that some would foresee. Yes, hybrid mana certainly made playing certain spells a lot easier and more fun, but we were still tapping lands to play spells. What it did do was force us to rethink how to play the basics. What would seem to be a mono white deck could drop a Selesnya Guildmage

Selesnya Guildmage
	Set: Ravnica City of Guilds Cost: 10 Color: Multicolor Type: Creature Sub Type: Elf Wizard Rarity: U Number: 252 Artist: Mark Zug Power: 2 Toughness: 2 Text: (G/W can be paid with either G or W.) 3G: Put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token into play. 3W: Creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn.

and make little weenies huge, and opponents that are tapped down can still Convoke spells onto the stack. The Dimir also introduces uncounterable tutoring through Transmute that could fetch important cards like Gifts Ungiven

Gifts Ungiven
	Set: Champions of Kamigawa Cost: 4 Color: Blue Type: Instant Rarity: R Number: 62 Artist: D. Alexander Gregory Text: Search your library for four cards with different names and reveal them. Target opponent chooses two of those cards. Put the chosen cards into your graveyard and the rest into your hand. Then shuffle your library.

and Persecute

Persecute
	Set: Urza's Saga Cost: 4 Color: Black Type: Sorcery Rarity: R Number: 146 Artist: D. Alexander Gregory Text: Choose a color. Look at target player's hand. That player discards all cards of the chosen color.

(which also became a big time player thanks to Ravnica).

Possibly the most important thing Ravnica did was send Mirrodin block off into ExtendedLand. We didn't have to worry about Tooth and Nail

Tooth and Nail
	Set: Mirrodin Cost: 7 Color: Green Type: Sorcery Rarity: R Number: 134 Artist: Greg Hildebrandt Text: Choose one - Search your library for up to two creature cards, reveal them, put them into your hand, then shuffle your library; or put up to two creature cards from your hand into play. Entwine 2 (Choose both if you pay the entwine cost.)

or Scepter-Go anymore. As much as we would miss our Chrome Mox

Chrome Mox
	Set: Mirrodin Color: Colorless Type: Artifact Rarity: R Number: 152 Artist: Donato Giancola Text: Imprint - When Chrome Mox comes into play, you may remove a nonartifact, nonland card in your hand from the game. (The removed card is imprinted on this artifact.) T: Add one mana of any of the imprinted card's colors to your mana pool.

en and a sad robot known as Solemn Simulacrum

Solemn Simulacrum
	Set: Mirrodin Cost: 4 Color: Colorless Type: Artifact Creature Rarity: R Number: 245 Artist: Greg Staples Text: When Solemn Simulacrum comes into play, you may search your library for a basic land card and put that card into play tapped. If you do, shuffle your library. When Solemn Simulacrum is put into a graveyard from play, you may draw a card.

, most people would agree that Mirrodin had overstayed its welcome. It was time to leave Cybertron and not look back.

Ravnica also responsible for clearing the way to make some of the weirdest tournament decks I've ever seen in Magic. A friend of mine tried to play Ebony-Ow

Ow
	Set: Unglued Cost: 1 Color: Black Type: Enchantment Rarity: R Number: 36 Artist: Edward P. Beard, Jr. Text: Whenever any creature damages a player, for each Ow card in play, that player says Ow once or Ow deals 1 damage to him or her.

l Netsuke and Howling Mine

Howling Mine
	Set: Revised Edition Cost: 2 Color: Colorless Type: Artifact Rarity: R Artist: Mark Poole Text: Each player must draw one extra card during the draw phase of each of his or her turns.

many months before Ravnica, and we all got a good laugh at the silly concept. Ravnica took this silly concept and turned it into a killer. Ow

Ow
	Set: Unglued Cost: 1 Color: Black Type: Enchantment Rarity: R Number: 36 Artist: Edward P. Beard, Jr. Text: Whenever any creature damages a player, for each Ow card in play, that player says Ow once or Ow deals 1 damage to him or her.

ling Mine wasn't just something to fear, it was something to hide from. If Ow

Ow
	Set: Unglued Cost: 1 Color: Black Type: Enchantment Rarity: R Number: 36 Artist: Edward P. Beard, Jr. Text: Whenever any creature damages a player, for each Ow card in play, that player says Ow once or Ow deals 1 damage to him or her.

ling Mine wasn't enough control for the average control-freak nutjob, Firemane Control gave us the opportunity to play one of the strangest and most obscure enchantments in Magic: Zur's Weirding

Zur's Weirding
	Set: Fifth Edition Cost: 4 Color: Blue Type: Enchantment Rarity: R Artist: Liz Danforth Text: Players play with their hands face up.Whenever any player draws a card, any other player may pay 2 life to force the drawing player to discard that card.

. Yes, people were playing Firemane Angel

Firemane Angel
	Set: Ravnica City of Guilds Cost: 6 Color: Multicolor Type: Creature Sub Type: Angel Rarity: R Number: 205 Artist: Matt Cavotta Power: 4 Toughness: 3 Text: Flying, first strike At the beginning of your upkeep, if Firemane Angel is in your graveyard or in play, you may gain 1 life. 6RRWW: Return Firemane Angel from your graveyard to play. Play this ability only during your upkeep.

and Zur's Weirding

Zur's Weirding
	Set: Fifth Edition Cost: 4 Color: Blue Type: Enchantment Rarity: R Artist: Liz Danforth Text: Players play with their hands face up.Whenever any player draws a card, any other player may pay 2 life to force the drawing player to discard that card.

together in a deck, and they were winning. A lot. It also allowed Heartbeat Combo to become a reality thanks to Dimir's Transmute mechanic. Players could now reliably fetch their kill spell when it was time to combo off.

Of course, Ravnica was also responsible for a lot of mean, terrifying tournament decks as well. It helped bring about Ghost Husk/Ghost Dad, Gruul, Boros Deck Wins, Rakdos Control, Satanic Sligh, and 'Vore(yes, I'm saying that Vore wouldn't be possible without Ravnica's help).

I definitely had favorite cards from this set, and I'll definitely miss these awesome bombs when they leave Standard. Here's a top ten list of my favorite Ravnica rares – minus the shock lands:

1. Debtor’s Knell
2. Dark Confidant

Dark Confidant
	Set: Ravnica City of Guilds Cost: 2 Color: Black Type: Creature Sub Type: Human Wizard Rarity: R Number: 81 Artist: Ron Spears Power: 2 Toughness: 1 Text: At the beginning of your upkeep, reveal the top card of your library and put that card into your hand. You lose life equal to its converted mana cost.

3. Angel of Despair

Angel of Despair
	Set: Guildpact Color: Multicolor Type: Creature Sub Type: Angel Rarity: R Number: 101 Power: 5 Toughness: 5 Text: Flying When Angel of Despair comes into play, destroy target permanent.

4. Giant Solifuge

Giant Solifuge
	Set: Guildpact Color: Multicolor Type: Creature Sub Type: Insect Rarity: R Number: 143 Power: 4 Toughness: 1 Text: ((R/G) can be paid with either R or G.) Trample, haste Giant Solifuge can’t be the target of spells or abilities.

aka Cap'n Tickles [Editor’s note: O rly?]
5. Char

Char
	Set: Ravnica City of Guilds Cost: 3 Color: Red Type: Instant Rarity: R Number: 117 Artist: Adam Rex Text: Char deals 4 damage to target creature or player and 2 damage to you.

6. Remand

Remand
	Set: Ravnica City of Guilds Cost: 2 Color: Blue Type: Instant Rarity: U Number: 63 Artist: Mark A. Nelson Text: Counter target spell. If that spell is countered this way, put it into its owner’s hand instead of into that player's graveyard. Draw a card.

7. Chord of Calling

Chord of Calling
	Set: Ravnica City of Guilds Cost: 4 Color: Green Type: Instant Rarity: R Number: 156 Artist: Heather Hudson Text: Convoke (Each creature you tap while playing this spell reduces its cost by 1 or by one mana of that creature’s color.) Search your library for a creature card with converted mana cost X or less and put it into play. Then shuffle your library.

8. Simic Sky Swallower

Simic Sky Swallower
	Set: Dissension Color: Multicolor Rarity: R Number: 130 Artist: rk post

aka Triple S
9. Glare of Subdual

Glare of Subdual
	Set: Ravnica City of Guilds Cost: 4 Color: Multicolor Type: Enchantment Rarity: R Number: 207 Artist: Zoltan Boros & Gabor Szikszai Text: Tap an untapped creature you control: Tap target artifact or creature.

10. Dovescape

Dovescape
	Set: Dissension Color: Multicolor Rarity: R Number: 143 Artist: Shishizaru

Not everything in Ravnica was made of gold. Let's face it – some of this stuff just sucked. Here's a list of some things that the set probably could have done without.

1. The return of the split cards
2. The cheeseball commercials
3. Hour of Reckoning

Hour of Reckoning
	Set: Ravnica City of Guilds Cost: 7 Color: White Type: Sorcery Rarity: R Number: 21 Artist: Randy Gallegos Text: Convoke (Each creature you tap while playing this spell reduces its cost by 1 or by one mana of that creature’s color.) Destroy all nontoken creatures.

4. Everyone trying to convince us that Helldozer

Helldozer
	Set: Ravnica City of Guilds Cost: 6 Color: Black Type: Creature Sub Type: Zombie Giant Rarity: R Number: 88 Artist: Zoltan Boros & Gabor Szikszai Power: 6 Toughness: 5 Text: BBB, T: Destroy target land. If that land is nonbasic, untap Helldozer.

was good
5. Ravnica/Guildpact/Dissension draft(it just got insane and nearly impossible)
6. Farseek

Farseek
	Set: Ravnica City of Guilds Cost: 2 Color: Green Type: Sorcery Rarity: C Number: 163 Artist: Martina Pilcerova Text: Search your library for a Plains, Island, Swamp, or Mountain card and put it into play tapped. Then shuffle your library.

(what a bad fetch spell)

So where is Ravnica right now while we count down its demise in Standard? It is still an insanely popular set, and Magic Online is still seeing Ravnica drafts daily. The shock lands are still being hugged and worshipped by the fanboys, and the chase cards are still seeing play at tables all around the globe. Ravnica, we'll miss thee – but we'll be glad to meet Lorwyn.

Thanks for taking the time to look back at Ravnica with me. Next time I'll delve into the crazier side of Magic yet again.

-Debaser

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