General [GRN] Guilds of Ravnica

[LadyMapi]

Yeah, if the Radiance cards cost one less, a lot of them would go from being utter trash to being mediocre.

Like, I'd play Incite Hysteria if it cost . Maybe. If I didn't have anything better for that slot.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

This was actually surprisingly solid. Trumpet Blast that untaps is a pretty good deal, and can be a blowout on defense as well.

 

[LadyMapi]

My only issue with Rally of the Righteous is that it's a gold card that asks me to either run a bunch of gold creatures or splash for it if I want to maximize its effectiveness.

Granted, I've never drafted OG Ravnica, so I might be misassessing it.

 

[japahn]

It's a 2-color card you want to play in a monocolor deck though... I like Rallying Roar much better in this role, and I don't even like it at all.

Edit: Responding to LadyMapi, I didn't play limited at the time, but it looks cute with Thundersong Trumpeter, and actually decent in Ravnica because it worked well in Selesnya + Boros.

 

[ravnic]

Cleansing Beam was also really really solid. Like, swingy, but not bad all together. Sometimes you had to board it out, but more often it could kill multiple creatures on the opponent's board, which was actual card advantage, board effecting even, in red.

But largely, I agree. The coolest boros cards didn't have the keyword, like Skyknight Legionnaire, Lightning Helix, Thundersong Trumpeter, Agrus Kos, Sunforger ...

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Radiance was kind of okay in limited back then, but pretty unplayable in constructed, and OG Ravnica is not a powerful set by modern standards, at least not at the common and uncommon level. You can imagine what that means for the mechanic when viewed with a modern lens.

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

What do you mean it's high variance? You just need a little bit of this, and it's perfectly reliable!



...

In all seriousness, Radiance is one of those mechanics that sucks because of the double-whammy of being wildly dependent on how good your format is at color fixing and the fact that they were hyper conservative with what effects they gave radiance.

I think that this thing is, quite literally, the only Radiance card I'd actually consider passable:



Because I mean... come on, Cleansing Beam? What were you thinking, Wotc?

Oh damn, didn't know we had a 2nd brave the elements in bathe in light. Cool!

 

[Seeker]

...well okay, I do appreciate my radiance joke leading other people to rediscover Bathe in Light (it saw constructed play at the time!)

 

[LadyMapi]

Cleansing Beam was also really really solid. Like, swingy, but not bad all together. Sometimes you had to board it out, but more often it could kill multiple creatures on the opponent's board, which was actual card advantage, board effecting even, in red.

My problem with Cleansing Beam is that more recent "Pyroclasm, but it doesn't hit your stuff if you build around it" designs have all cost , and they're still pretty meh. For 5 mana, I'd want it to deal at least 3 damage to each target.

 

[ravnic]

I'm definitely not advocating playing that card in your cubes, but back in my day, we were all playing bad 2-color casual guild decks and Cleansing Beam was a legitimate tiebraker. Against something like Golgari, you'd target a gold card and often kill three creatures, and against Selesnya, you'd target a green card and still get rid of two guys or a bunch of tokens usually. Creatures were also pretty small. Most 3-drops and even some 4- and 5-drops from ravnica block died to 2 damage.

 

[blacksmithy]

Most 3-drops and even some 4- and 5-drops from ravnica block died to 2 damage.

so this is the big thing about OG rav block lol

 

[Chris Taylor]

2001 was a different time

 

[ravnic]

*2005/6

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Chris is technically correct though, 2001 was a different time... than Ravnica