Ravnica: City of Guilds, shortened as Ravnica (pronounced /RAV-nih-kuh/ IPA: /ˈɹæv.nɪ.kə/), is the first set in the Ravnica block. It is the 36th Magic: The Gathering expansion and was released on October 7, 2005. The prerelease was September 24–25, 2005.
Set details
Ravnica: City of Guilds contained 306 black-bordered cards (88 rare, 88 uncommon, 110 common, and 20 basic lands). "Ravnica" is a multicolor oriented set. The design is based around four two-color pairs, including cards in which those pairs of colors work in concert. All the multicolor cards in the set Ravnica block are associated with one of the four guilds. As a consequence of multicolor cards and an unbalanced color distribution, there are fewer red and blue cards. The appearance of a guild symbol in the background of a card's text box identifies that card's guild affiliation. The guild symbols have no effect on game play. Ravnica: City of Guilds also introduced the hybrid mana system used throughout the Ravnica block. The expansion symbol of the set is a tower, which stands for the overdeveloped cityscape of the plane of Ravnica.
"Ravnica" (ravnìca; равнѝца) is a Serbo-Croatian word for "plain". The influence of Eastern Europe is not only reflected in this etymology of the expansion name but throughout the flavor of the set.
The expansion set was well-received, particularly because of its innovative "guild model", and won the 2005 Origin Awards for Best Collectible Card Game or Expansion.
Marketing
Ravnica: City of Guilds was sold in 75-card tournament decks, 15-card boosters, four preconstructed theme decks and a fat pack. All products except the boosters contained a random Pro Tour Players Card. The booster packs featured artwork from Savra, Queen of the Golgari, Moroii, Loxodon Hierarch, Helldozer and Circu, Dimir Lobotomist The prerelease was held on September 24–25, 2005; the prerelease card was a foil alternate art Gleancrawler. The release card a Dimir Guildmage. The name of the set was changed from Ravnica to Ravnica: City of Guilds at a late stage to convey that the guilds were central to the design. It was accompanied by the novel of the same name by Cory J. Herndon.
Flavor and storyline
Following in the tradition of recent previous Magic blocks, Ravnica takes place in a plane of the multiverse that was previously unexplored in the game's backstory. The world of Ravnica is an ecumenopolis, a vast city that covers the entire surface of its planet, and is home to a diverse assortment of sentient races. For ten thousand years, there has been a power struggle between the ten Ravnican guilds, political factions that each represent a combination of two of Magic's five colors. Ten millennia ago, the Guildpact was signed by the paruns, ending active warfare between them and ushering in an era of peace. But now, on the eve of the celebrations of the accord's ten thousandth anniversary, a sinister force threatens the survival of that peace.
Storyline sources
Themes and mechanics
Ravnica introduced hybrid cards with entirely new mana symbols ("Guild mana"). Each symbol is a circle halved diagonally, in which the top left half is one color and the bottom right half another. A smaller version of the color's icon (sun for white, skull for black, etc.) appears in the corresponding half. These mana symbols mean that mana of either color may be used to pay it. The cards with these mana symbols have a colored border that fades from left to right, out of one color and into the other.
Ravnica also introduced a heavy "auras matter" theme, being the second block (after Urza's Saga) to place any sort of mechanical focus on the enchantment subtype. Although there are no mechanics directly related to auras, cards like Gatherer of Graces, Bramble Elemental, and the Magemark cycle encouraged the use of the local enchantments.
Ravnica: City of Guilds introduced four of the ten Ravnica block bicolored guilds, each of which with its own keyword or ability word.
To note: the Guilds are presented in the official 
order, but they were originally displayed alphabetically by Wizard: Boros Legion, House Dimir, Golgari Swarm, Selesnya Conclave.
Creature types
The creature types Archon and Lammasu were introduced in Ravnica: City of Guilds.
Cycles
Ravnica has two cycles:
Reprinted cards
- Birds of Paradise, first printed in Alpha, last seen in Eighth Edition
- Dark Heart of the Wood, first printed in The Dark
- Elves of Deep Shadow, first printed in The Dark
- Goblin Spelunkers, first printed in Urza's Saga, last seen in Seventh Edition
- Smash, first printed in Apocalypse
- Snapping Drake, first printed in Portal, last seen in Starter 1999
Functional reprint
- Benevolent Ancestor, functional reprint of Alabaster Wall (Mercadian Masques) save for creature type
Colorshifted
- Char, red colorshifted version of Psionic Blast (Alpha)
- Rain of Embers, red colorshifted version of Dry Spell (Homelands)
Strictly better
- Clinging Darkness, upgrade from Torment (Stronghold)
- Convolute, upgrade from Flaccify (Unhinged)
- Courier Hawk, upgrade from Armored Pegasus (Portal)
- Elvish Skysweeper, upgrade from Willow Elf (Starter 1999)
- Frenzied Goblin and War-Torch Goblin, upgrades from Dwarven Trader (Homelands) and Mons's Goblin Raiders (Alpha)
- Grayscaled Gharial, upgrade from Fugitive Wizard (Legions), Merfolk of the Pearl Trident (Alpha), and Wandering Ones (Champions of Kamigawa)
- Roofstalker Wight, upgrade from Dakmor Scorpion (Portal Second Age), Krovikan Scoundrel (Coldsnap), Skeletal Snake (Portal), and Wei Infantry (Portal Three Kingdoms)
- Shred Memory, upgrade from Decompose (Odyssey)
- Surge of Zeal, conditional upgrade from Unnatural Speed (Champions of Kamigawa)
- Thoughtpicker Witch, upgrade from Muck Rats (Portal)
- Transluminant, upgrade from Balduvian Bears (Ice Age), Barbary Apes (Legends), Bear Cub (Portal Second Age), Forest Bear (Portal Three Kingdoms), and Grizzly Bears (Alpha)
- Veteran Armorer, upgrade from Fresh Volunteers (Mercadian Masques), Glory Seeker (Onslaught), and Knight Errant (Portal)
- Votary of the Conclave, upgrade from Eager Cadet (Starter 1999)
Notable cards
- Ravnica Dual lands (henceforth termed shock lands) which would be the beginning of the Ravnica dual lands mega cycle: Overgrown Tomb, Sacred Foundry, Temple Garden and Watery Grave.
- Another cycle of dual lands from the block, the bounce lands, have seen a great deal of play in Pauper as one of the best cycles of common dual lands, but also form the backbone of the Amulet Titan deck in Modern where they can be combined to great effect with Amulet of Vigor.
- Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion is used as a finisher in Amulet Titan decks, which can fetch the land with the eponymous Primeval Titan and use it to easily deal lethal damage.
- Dark Confidant, Bob Mahers's invitational card, became a powerful draw engine in Extended, Modern, Legacy, and Vintage. The flavor text is also considered the iconic black philosophy.
- Dredge as a whole, with the standouts being Life from the Loam, Golgari Grave-Troll, Stinkweed Imp, Golgari Thug became the core of Dredge-based decks, including Legacy and Vintage Ichorid.
- Life from the Loam was a very powerful card drawing engine, particularly in combination with fetch lands and cycling lands. It was one of the only Dredge spells that was cast rather than abused for Dredge.
- Golgari Grave-Troll has the dubious honor of being the only card that was banned twice in a sanctioned format. It was unbanned in Modern from January 2015 to January 2017, before being banned again.
- Lightning Helix remains a very powerful removal spell, making it hard for aggressive decks to race.
- Chord of Calling is a popular creature tutor used in Modern after the ban of Birthing Pod and remains useful.
- Flame Fusillade once had an interaction with Time Vault that was abused in Vintage before the undone errata restored Time Vault's functionality.
- Loxodon Hierarch was a former aggro-control staple providing a large creature for a decent price, offsetting life loss from aggressive decks, and with a good, though seldom used, ability.
- Watchwolf was once common in Zoo decks of many formats, now somewhat obsoleted by more efficient cards like Wild Nacatl and Tarmogoyf.
- Blazing Archon was once a premium target for Reanimator decks, now obsoleted by more impactful cards like Iona, Shield of Emeria and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite.
- Helldozer had its flavor text, written by Mark Rosewater, as the top rated from the set.
- Remand has seen heavy play in Modern, most notably in Storm decks, where it functions both as a way to stop disruption without using up a card in hand and as a way to return Storm cards to hand to cast them again.
Preconstructed decks
The preconstructed theme decks are:
References
External links
- Magic Arcana (September 01, 2005). "Ravnica Preview Trailer". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- Mark Rosewater (August 8, 2022). "Ravnica Design Handoff Document". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- Mark Rosewater (March 21, 2023). "Lesson Learned, Part 2". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.