Ravnica: City of Guilds
| |
| Expansion symbol |   
|
|---|---|
| Product code | RAV |
| Number of cards | 306 |
| Release date | October 7, 2005 |
| Design team | Mark Rosewater (lead) Mike Elliott Aaron Forsythe Tyler Bielman Richard Garfield |
| Development team | Brian Schneider (lead) Randy Buehler Henry Stern Matt Place Mark Gottlieb Aaron Forsythe |
- This article is about the card set. For information on the fictional setting, see Ravnica.
Ravnica: City of Guilds is a Magic: The Gathering expansion set, first in the Ravnica Block. Ravnica will be released on October 7, 2005, with prerelease events held worldwide on weekend of September 24-25, 2005. The set's expansion symbol is a tower.
In the fictional setting, of the ten guilds that rule the plane of Ravnica, four are the sole focus of this first set in the block. The next expansion, Guildpact, is expected to focus only on three other guilds, and the last set in the block, Dissension, should bring it to a close by introducing the last three guilds. In practical game terms, this means that Ravnica focuses on four specific color combinations.
Design
Ravnica was conceived of following the success of Invasion. That set, released in 2000, emphasized interactions between the colors, and it was one of Magic's most popular releases ever. Ravnica lead designer, Mark Rosewater, wanted to expand on the multicolor theme in a new way. Therefore, the design of Ravnica is based around the four guilds above, meaning cards in which those pairs of colors work in concert.
Mechanics
- Hybrid cards ("Guild mana"): For the first time in Magic's history, entirely new mana symbols appear. These symbols each correspond to one of the guilds, and is represented as a circle halved diagonally, in which the left/top 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; for example, a spell whose mana cost is two of the green/white symbols may be played using two green mana, two white mana, or one green and one white. The cards with these mana symbols have a colored border that fades from left to right, out of one color and into the other. A large version of the guild's sigil underlies the text box of the card.
Additionally, each guild has its own keyword ability, which appears on both multicolored cards and cards of a single one of the guild's colors.
- Radiance (red/white): Instants and sorceries with Radiance affect every creature that shares a color with the target creature.
- Convoke (green/white): A player playing a spell with Convoke may tap some of his or her creatures to pay part or all of the mana cost. Each creature tapped reduces the cost by one mana of that creature's color, or by one colorless mana.
- Dredge (black/green): Cards with Dredge may be returned from the graveyard to their owners' hand, provided that player opts to skip drawing a card and instead put a number of cards from the top card of his or her library into the graveyard.
- Transmute (blue/black): For a few mana, a card with Transmute that's in a player's hand may be discarded. Doing this allows the player to replace the discard card with one from his or her deck that shares its converted mana cost.
