Dissension
Dissension is the thirty-eighth Magic: The Gathering expansion, and was released in May 2006 as the third and final set of the Ravnica block.
Set details
Dissension contains 180 black-bordered cards (60 rare, 60 uncommon, and 60 commons) — 15 more than normal for a small set to make room for a reappearance of the popular split card mechanic from Invasion and Apocalypse. The prerelease events for this set were held on April 22–23, 2006. Its expansion symbol is meant to be a variation on the wrought-ironwork shown in the Guildpact symbol, but broken to reflect the disintegration of the Guildpact spell. Like the Guildpact symbol, it has three “branches” to evoke its three guilds. Dissension expanded on the Ravnica block themes of multicolor and hybrid, adding the last three new guilds to the environment (The Azorius Senate (white/blue), the Cult of Rakdos (black/red) and the Simic Combine (green/blue).
Marketing
Dissension was sold in 15-card boosters, three preconstructed theme decks and a fat pack. The decks and the fat pack contained a Pro Tour Player Cards. The booster packs featured artwork from Isperia the Inscrutable, Lyzolda, the Blood Witch, and Cytoplast Root-Kin. The prerelease card was the foil alternate art Avatar of Discord. The release card was Azorius Guildmage. The set was accompanied by the novel of the same name by Cory Herndon. The Magic Online release featured four new pieces of art commissioned for the tokens.
Storyline
The streets of Ravnica run red with blood. Guild fights guild and horrifying monsters ravage the city, destroying all who stand in their way. But as Ravnica crumbles, a method emerges from the madness, and it becomes clear that the city's chaos was calculated. Something must be done. And unfortunately for Kos, being dead doesn't mean you don't have a job to do. The Guildpact's spell is finally broken when he publicly arrests Szadek, exposing him and House Dimir to the public.
Storyline sources
Savor the Flavor
Mechanics and themes
Dissension continued the guild model and introduced the final three two-color guilds, two with a new keyword and one with an ability word. The guilds and associated mechanics are as follows:
To note: the Guilds are presented in the official 
order, but they were originally displayed in a different order by Wizard: Azorius Senate, Simic Combine, Cult of Rakdos.
- Split cards: there are 10 gold split cards representing combinations of the guilds of Ravnica. The allied color guilds are represented on uncommon split cards, whereas the enemy color guilds are represented on rare split cards.
- Protection: Dissension expanded on the protection ability by introducing "protection from monocolored" and "protection from multicolored".
Creature types
The following creature types are introduced in this expansion: Construct.
The following creature types are used in this expansion but also appear in previous sets: Advisor, Archer, Assassin, Avatar, Basilisk, Beast, Berserker, Bird, Cat, Centaur, Cleric, Demon, Devil, Djinn, Dragon, Druid, Elemental, Elf, Faerie, Frog, Gargoyle, Goblin, Golem, Griffin, Horror, Hydra, Imp, Knight, Leviathan, Lizard, Mutant, Ogre, Ooze, Pegasus, Plant, Rat, Rogue, Scout, Shade, Shaman, Snake, Soldier, Sphinx, Spirit, Soldier, Thrull, Troll, Vedalken, Viashino, Warrior, Wizard, Worm, Zombie.
Cycles
Dissension has three cycles:
Pairs
Dissension has two mirrored pairs.
Reprinted cards
The following cards have been reprinted from previous sets.
- Seal of Doom — first printed in Nemesis.
- Seal of Fire — first printed in Nemesis.
- Thrive — first printed in Prophecy. Thrive augmented the graft ability found in this set.
Notable cards
- Utopia Sprawl has seen extensive play in Modern, especially in conjunctions with fetchlands and shocklands which make its Forest restriction less significant. It has been combined effectively with Arbor Elf since the beginning of the format to make four mana as early as turn two.
- Ghost Quarter has been played from Standard to Vintage, where it provides hate in the land base for non-basic lands. It combines especially well with cards like Leonin Arbiter which prevent the opponent from using the land search given to them.
- Protean Hulk has been used infamously with Flash as soon as its errata was removed, as the card allowed for the Hulk to be put into play and sacrificed before the first player even gets a main phase to win the game. This powerful interaction leads to Flash being quickly banned and restricted in Legacy and Vintage respectively.
- Demonfire - used in many formats including legacy until obsoleted by the notably more consistent Conflux card Banefire
- Research/Development - Used in some Vintage decks to have access to utility cards in sideboard.
- Simic Sky Swallower - used in Legacy deck Ichorid and Vintage Oath decks due to evasion and shroud.
- Spell Snare - Counterspell commonly used in Legacy and Extended decks
- Transguild Courier - both the first artifact card to have a color, and the first artifact card to have all colors.
- Trygon Predator - anti-artifact/enchantment creature sometimes used in Legacy sideboards.
- Vigean Intuition: This instant mimicked the ability of Wood Sage, an older blue/green card from Tempest.
- Ravnica Dual lands: Blood Crypt, Breeding Pool, and Hallowed Fountain.
- Rakdos Augermage, Terry Soh's invitational card.
- Azorius First-Wing introduces protection from enchantments.
Preconstructed decks
In Dissension, there were three guilds so there are just three theme decks instead of the standard four. The preconstructed theme decks are: