Return to Ravnica

Last updated
Return to Ravnica
Return to Ravnica symbol common.svg
ReleasedOctober 5, 2012
Size274 cards (15 Mythic Rare, 53 Rare, 80 Uncommon, 101 Common, 25 Basic Land)
MechanicsOverload, Detain, Unleash, Populate, Scavenge
DesignersKen Nagle (lead), Zac Hill, Alexis Janson, Mark Rosewater, Ken Troop
DevelopersErik Lauer (lead), Zac Hill, Dave Humpherys, Tom LaPille, Adam Lee, Billy Moreno, Shawn Main
Development codeHook
Expansion codeRTR
First set in the Return to Ravnica block
Return to RavnicaGatecrashDragon's Maze [1]
← Magic 2013 Gatecrash →
← Innistrad Block Theros Block →
Gatecrash
Gatecrash symbol.jpg
A pointed arch of a gate
ReleasedFebruary 1, 2013
Size249 cards (15 mythic rares, 53 rares, 80 uncommons, 101 commons)
MechanicsBattalion, Bloodrush, Evolve, Cipher, Extort
Designers Mark Rosewater (co-lead), Mark Gottlieb (co-lead), Joe Huber, Dave Humpherys, Ethan Fleischer, Shawn Main
DevelopersDave Humpherys (lead), Zac Hill, Mark Globus, Mark Purvis, Max McCall, Gavin Verhey
Development codeLine
Expansion codeGTC
Second set in the Return to Ravnica block
Return to RavnicaGatecrashDragon's Maze [2]
← Return to Ravnica Dragon's Maze →
← Innistrad Block Theros Block →
Dragon's Maze
Dragon's Maze symbol.jpg
The Gatecrash symbol arched over the Return to Ravnica symbol
ReleasedMay 3, 2013
Size156 cards (11 mythic rares, 35 rares, 40 uncommons, 70 commons)
DesignersAlexis Janson (co-lead), Mark Rosewater (co-lead), Erik Lauer, Aaron Forsythe, Shawn Main, Dan Emmons
DevelopersZac Hill (lead), Erik Lauer, Mark Globus, Mark Gottlieb, Masami Ibamoto, Sam Stoddard
Development codeSinker
Expansion codeDGM
Third set in the Return to Ravnica block
Return to RavnicaGatecrashDragon's Maze [3]
← Gatecrash Modern Masters →
← Innistrad Block Theros Block →

Return to Ravnica is a Magic: The Gathering block, consisting of Return to Ravnica (October 5, 2012), Gatecrash (February 1, 2013), and Dragon's Maze (May 3, 2013). [1] [2] [3] It is the second block set on the plane of Ravnica, after the Ravnica block, and again focuses on the multicolor cards and ten guilds of Ravnica. Return to Ravnica focuses on five guilds: the Izzet League, Cult of Rakdos, Golgari Swarm, Azorius Senate, and Selesnya Conclave. Gatecrash focuses on the other five guilds: the Boros Legion, House Dimir, The Orzhov Syndicate, The Gruul Clans, and The Simic Combine. All ten guilds appear in Dragon's Maze. [4] [5] [6]

Contents

Storyline

The story told vaguely in the cards deals with the Izzet League searching for something deep within Ravnica's bowels and the other guilds responding to their mysterious actions. [7] This is largely due to the collapse of the Guildpact, which kept the guilds in relative peace for almost 10,000 years, mainly because of the desires of the parun (original founder) of the House Dimir, Szadek, who signed the Guildpact on the condition that the Dimir remain a secret. [8] The storyline of Gatecrash deals with the rise of another faction that does not ally with any of the Guilds, referred to in-game as the "Gateless". [9] The Gateless were referred to in the first set in certain cards as well. While the Gateless are rising to power, the guilds are in the process of trying to thwart each other, adding layers to the story. The Dragon's Maze set marks the culmination of the Izzet League's research into the depths of Ravnica, the eponymous Dragon's Maze (also known as the Implicit Maze [10] ), a path that treads all 10 guild gates in order to find and activate an energy source of enough power to allow the winner of the maze to subjugate and control all of the other guilds. By this point, the other guilds have gotten suspicious of something, partially by the Dimir spreading rumors, [8] about the Izzet's true purpose for their experiments, and have begun to arm themselves for an all-out war. Niv-Mizzet, leader of the Izzet League, seeing it as the only way to avoid a complete obliteration of all the guilds by each other, proposes a challenge in which each guild selects a champion in order to navigate and conquer the maze and subsequently the other guilds. Each Champion, also called a Mazerunner, will have to traverse the maze, and they will have to deal with other guilds' attempts to halt their advance. [11] Like in the original Ravnica block, each Mazerunner is a Legendary Creature card. [12]

Guilds

Most of the citizenry are members of one of the ten guilds, each a unique organization with its own rules and specialties and specializing in a unique two-color combination of magic. [13]

The Implicit Maze

The maze's origins are shrouded in mystery, but some details have been figured out by the Planeswalker Jace Beleren and the dragon Niv-Mizzet. It was created by the parun of the Azorius Senate, Azor. His intentions are unknown, but since it goes through various landmarks of all ten guilds, it seems to be a test of teamwork. However, the prize is too great for any guild to work with another and then share the prize, so it devolved into a huge competition with each guild using its specialties to attack all the other maze-runners on their turf. [8] [14] The Maze-Runners are as follows: [12]

Set details

The Return to Ravnica block features a return of the hybrid mana cost as well as the famous "dual shock lands" from the original Ravnica block. [15] The set also features many cycles of cards that are aligned with certain guilds. Each guild has a charm (last featured in the Shards of Alara block) that offers a caster the choice of three options. Each guild has a multicolored land known as a Guildgate and also a shockland; controlling a Guildgate allows a player to tap it for one mana of either color of that guild. Each guild has a legendary leader (in Return to Ravnica or Gatecrash), a legendary champion (in Dragon's Maze) and a guildmage. [16] Return to Ravnica features the Planeswalkers of Jace, Architect of Thought (The most recent incarnation of the blue member of the Lorwyn Five, this time living in his adopted home of Ravnica) and the new black/green Vraska the Unseen (Her name is actually derived from the Czech for "ditch" or "furrow", probably as a reference to her rise to power in the Golgari). [17] Gatecrash's Planeswalkers are Gideon, Champion of Justice (The newest version of the white-aligned warrior) and Domri Rade (A red/green who fits in perfectly with the Gruul). Dragon's Maze only has one Planeswalker: Ral Zarek, a red/blue Izzet mage who would rather run the maze himself rather than let Melek do it. [18] The homunculus Fblthp (Who only shows up in the art and flavor text of the card Totally Lost) has also become quite popular, spawning plushies, [19] a Twitter feed, [20] and his own website.

Dragon's Maze

Dragon's Maze features all ten guilds from Ravnica. [21] Beyond just printing new cards for the guilds, Dragon's Maze adds a whole new element to each one, such as adding some offensive creatures to the otherwise spell-centric Izzet League. [21] In the prerelease sealed format, players chose their guild and received a guild pack of the appropriate guild. The guild pack also contained a second "secret" guild that shared one of the two colors of the chosen guild. [22] Each player that attended the prerelease received the same promotional card, Maze's End, which could not be played in the sealed deck (as opposed to the prereleases for Return to Ravnica and Gatecrash ). [21] [22] The draft format for Dragon's Maze also reverts to the normal format of drafting the three sets in a block in reverse order of their release, in this case Dragon's Maze – Gatecrash – Return to Ravnica. [21]

Booster packs for Dragon's Maze do not contain basic lands. [23] Instead each booster contains either a guildgate, a shock land, or the mythic rare land Maze's End from Dragon's Maze in the appropriate ratio of their rarities. [23] The Shock lands have the appropriate expansion symbols of Return to Ravnica and Gatecrash, but the Gates are part of Dragon's Maze and have a Dragon's Maze expansion symbol making them part of the set and thus marking the first time cards other than basic lands are printed multiple times within the same block. [21] In limited events, an exceptional rule was set up, which Shock lands in Dragon's Maze boosters are treated as if they are cards from Dragon's Maze during sealed or booster draft.

Dragon's Maze features the planeswalker Ral Zarek. [24] [25] Another returning feature of the set is the presence of the Guild champions, [25] all of which are in the rare slot, as opposed to mythic rare. At one point in development, some of the Champions were going to be mythic and much more powerful while others were going to be rare, but it was eventually decided that all the Champions had to be equal in terms of rarity and power. [26] The set marks the return of Split Cards, which have two separate effects printed on the same card but with different mana costs, only now in the form of "Fuse" cards (explained below). [21] [24]

Mechanics

Five new guild mechanics are introduced in both Return to Ravnica and Gatecrash. Each of the ten guild mechanics introduced in the previous sets is also featured in Dragon's Maze. [21] According to Mark Rosewater, each mechanic was designed to go along with the corresponding one from the original Ravnica block. [27]

One new mechanic was introduced in Dragon's Maze:

There are many cards that deal with the Gates, especially in the third set, including a cycle of Gatekeepers that have an effect if you control two or more Gates [10] and a card that lets you win immediately if you control all ten. [29]

Notable cards

Notable cards include the "shock lands" cycle, the "charm" cycle, Abrupt Decay , Deathrite Shaman , Burning-Tree Emissary , Domri Rade , Sphinx's Revelation , Goblin Electromancer , Maze's End , Obzedat, Ghost Council , Blood Baron of Vizkopa , and Voice of Resurgence

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References

  1. 1 2 "Return to Ravnica". CoolStuffInc.com, LLC. Retrieved February 7, 2014.
  2. 1 2 "Gatecrash". CoolStuffInc.com, LLC. Retrieved February 7, 2014.
  3. 1 2 "Dragon's Maze". CoolStuffInc.com, LLC. Retrieved February 7, 2014.
  4. ↑ ertaislament (2013-05-24), Return to Ravnica Block , retrieved 2013-10-04
  5. ↑ McQuiston, James (2013-01-26), Magic the Gathering: Gatecrash Review , retrieved 2013-10-06
  6. ↑ Morgan, Matt (2011-09-11), Exclusive Card Preview: Magic: The Gathering's Return to Ravnica, archived from the original on September 13, 2012, retrieved 2013-10-06
  7. ↑ Mike Eaton. "Academy: The Mystery of the Dragon's Maze!". Play Unplugged, LLC. Retrieved April 4, 2014.
  8. 1 2 3 Will Blanks (September 20, 2013). "The Ravnica Guilds: Dimir Revealed". Roxie Cards. Retrieved April 4, 2014.
  9. ↑ Guildscorn Ward
  10. 1 2 Inanimate. "Never Too Gate To Try". MINDMOIL. Retrieved April 4, 2014.
  11. ↑ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine : "Dragon's Maze Trailer - English". YouTube .
  12. 1 2 Daniel Tack (April 18, 2013). "The Guild Champions of Dragon's Maze". Forbes. Retrieved February 7, 2014.
  13. ↑ John Dale Beety (8 August 2012). "Return To Ravnica (For Those Who've Never Been)". Star City Games. Retrieved April 4, 2014.
  14. ↑ Doug Beyer (2013). The Secretist. Wizards of the Coast.
  15. ↑ "Are You Shocked? The Return of Shock Lands in Return to Ravnica". September 3, 2012. Archived from the original on April 7, 2014. Retrieved April 3, 2014.
  16. ↑ Return to Ravnica Player's Guide
  17. ↑ Bert O. Phillips (September 9, 2012). "Jace, Architect of Thought -vs- Vraska the Unseen; or, the New Grimy Grinders of Standard". ThoughtScour.com. Retrieved February 7, 2014.
  18. ↑ Dragon's Maze Player's Guide
  19. ↑ "Fblthp plushie" . Retrieved February 7, 2014.
  20. ↑ "Fblthp". Twitter, Inc. Retrieved February 7, 2014.
  21. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 WingspanTT (May 12, 2013). "Dragon's Maze review: Can all 10 Ravnica guilds get along?" . Retrieved April 4, 2014.
  22. 1 2 "Dragon's Maze Guild Pack". Batch Technologies. Retrieved April 4, 2014.
  23. 1 2 "Magic the Gathering Dragons Maze". The Collector Store LLC. Archived from the original on April 7, 2014. Retrieved April 4, 2014.
  24. 1 2 Raven Knives (April 8, 2014). "Dragon's Maze Spoilers: Ral Zarek". News Theme on Genesis Framework. Retrieved April 4, 2014.
  25. 1 2 Daniel Tack (April 8, 2014). "Official Dragon's Maze Previews Begin". Forbes . Retrieved April 4, 2014.
  26. ↑ "Blogatog".
  27. ↑ Oliver Law (July 23, 2012). "Return to Ravnica: Information and Speculation" . Retrieved February 7, 2014.
  28. 1 2 3 4 5 Magic the Gathering staff (December 31, 2012). "Gatecrash Mechanics". Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on January 3, 2013. Retrieved December 31, 2012.
  29. ↑ Valeriy Shunkov (June 17, 2013). "Maze's End For Standard". StarCityGames.com. Retrieved April 4, 2014.
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