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Ravnica

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In the card game [[Magic: The Gathering]], Ravnica is a [[plane (Magic: The Gathering)|plane]] whose primary planet is covered by cities. Ravnica is the setting for [[Ravnica: City of Guilds]], Guildpact, and [[Dissension (Magic: The Gathering)|Dissension]]. "Ravnica" is also the name of the city in which ten guilds, i.e. the ten guilds that signed the Guildpact, vie for complete control.

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The Guildpact

Ten thousand years before the events of [[Ravnica: City of Guilds]], the plane of Ravnica was one of untold violence and brutality. Ten factions constantly waged war against one (or more) of the others. Realizing that this never-ending war would ultimately destroy everything, a council was created. A faction leader by the name of Azor suggested a living, breathing magical enchantment that would ensure the survival of all ten factions. While there were initial disagreements from some of the order-phobic factions, eventually the nine other faction leaders realized that it was the best chance of survival. Over time, these factions became the ten Guilds of Ravnica.

The power of the Guildpact is subtle, preventing any Guild from dabbling into the business of any other Guild (or doing anything which would shift the Guild balance). For example, if a Gruul raiding clan were to attempt to demolish an Orzhov banking center, they would find themselves stopped by a case of dysentery, slowing them down long enough for a Boros counter attack.

Every year the anniversary of the signing of the Guildpact is celebrated in a day-long festival where all people lay down their weapons and celebrate. This celebration is called The Festival of the Guildpact.

Not all of the citizens of Ravnica are in one of the guilds, indeed the vast majority have no attachment. However, the Guilds are a required part of daily life, their presence felt everywhere on Ravnica.

Guilds

One of the core powers of the Guildpact was defining the role each Guild would play in maintaining the city of Ravnica, giving each one a monopoly on a good or service. The Guildpact also prevents a Guild from doing another Guild's business. Note: In the books, some of the guildmasters and champions die.

The Boros Legion

A Firemane Angel, a powerful member of the Boros Legion.
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A Firemane Angel, a powerful member of the Boros Legion.

The Boros Legion adhere to a set of absolute, Platonic law. This righteous devotion to this law gives the legion their furor, their power, and the awe with which they are beheld. Led by the archangel Razia in the skies and by Wojek veteran Agrus Kos on the ground, the Boros are the premier fighters and enforcers of justice of Ravnica. Very few dare to go into head-on-head conflict with the Boros, as they are simply the most skilled and most impassioned fighters in the City of Guilds. Unlike the Azorius Senate, who also uphold the purity of the law, the Boros champion action and swift retribution, leaving legal subtlety and moral ambiguity to the bureaucrats and the politicians. Perhaps this is why part of this guild, the League of Wojek, was chosen to enforce Ravnica's laws. Their absolute belief in justice makes them swift and effective in neutralizing any conflict. To those innocent, the Boros may seem to be the upholders of righteousness and truth, to those guilty, the Boros can be tyrannical.

Also Known As: The Legion

Guild Leader/Parun: Razia, an archangel of fire and Boros parun. She is an ageless creation of justice and purity who serves as a living ideal for the guild.

Guild Champion: The Wojek veteran and leader Agrus Kos. Agrus is the hero of the Ravnica books.

Guild Hall: Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion

Values: Passionate belief in law and order, and, to a lesser extent, the cultured civilization that Ravnica represents. Depending on who is discussing them, they may be the bastions of stability or blind, close-minded zealots.

Structure: Fully military. The Boros view Razia as more of a figurehead than an actual commander-in-chief. Still, many generals revere her and would heed any command she gave. Every Boros legionnaire has a function in combat.

Colours: Red and White

Play Style: A typical Boros deck is very combat-oriented. Its main aim is to deploy as many troops as possible and attack, attack, attack. If the opponent tries to fight back, the Boros has many resources available to punish the opponent for it. Spells that assist in becoming victorius any combat situation abound in this guild, including ones that both help the legion (by making your creatures stronger, or defending them from attack) or hurting the opponent (by making opposing creatures weaker, or just outright destroying them). A good situation for Boros to be in is one where combat is literally unwinnable for the opponent, in which its army can rush in for a clean sweep. However, unlike other "aggressive" guilds, the Boros also contain several strong control cards; life gain (or damage prevention) is frequently coupled with damage (or, in one case, a recurring creature) and mass destruction effects, most as a result of Radiance, clear the ground of armies (especially in a format with limited card selection, such as Booster Draft or Sealed Deck). As a result, some highly control-based Boros decks have been reasonably successful, most notably the Firemane Angel archetype, which employs a plurality of Boros-guilded cards. In fact, as the metagame for Ravnica matured, Boros-control proved to be much more effective than Boros-aggression.

Keyword: Radiance (not a true keyword). A spell or ability with radiance targets one creature (or in one case, enchantment), then affects that creature and all other creatures that share a colour with it. For example, if you play Cleansing Beam targeting a green and black creature, it will deal 2 damage to all creatures that are green and all creatures that are black, though the effect does not double up if any creatures are both green and black.

Signet: The signet of Boros is a fist in a sun.

The Golgari

The signet of the Golgari.
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The signet of the Golgari.

The Golgari believe you can't truly live until you die. For them, death gives life meaning, and from death comes new life. With its vast horde of undead serving as both standing army and labor force, the Golgari operate in Ravnica's undercity, slowly taking over abandoned and derelict areas like a fetid slime mold. This guild contains many factions, from undead abominations of plant matter and flesh, to Ravnica's dark elves, known as the Devkarin. Leadership of the guild is always contested. Svogthir was the original guildmaster of the Golgari. Svogthir was a necromancer who found a way to preserve his consciousness or ghost in his body even at death. This translates into near indestructibility and necromantic invulnerability. The Sisters of Stone Death, a trio of gorgons, have been the guild's oracles and rulers for about a thousand years, but the dark-elf shaman Savra has set her sights on the Golgari throne. And Savra tends to get what she wants.

Also known as: The Swarm

Guild Leader/Champion: Contested. The Sisters of Stone Death, a trio of gorgons who claim oracular powers, currently lead the guild. But the dark-elf shaman Savra has grown powerful enough to challenge them. Also, rumors abound that the legendary necromancer Svogthir, founder of the guild and "God-Zombie", was never destroyed.

Parun: Svogthir, the legendary necromancer. Revered by the Golgari as the god-zombie.

Guild Hall: Svogthos, the Restless Tomb

Values: Power through growth. The Golgari grow by folding the dead into the ranks, as well as through occasional minor incursions into new territory.

Structure: A predatory organism with many predators within it. Subgroups of the guild (dark elves, undead-plant hybrids, and others) struggle for control.

Colours: Green and Black

Play Style: Golgari decks use the graveyard as a resource. Just because something is in the graveyard, doesn't mean it's served its purpose. The keyword, dredge, plays on this in two ways. First, it brings things back from the graveyard. And second, it puts more things in there. The typical Golgari deck will prefer having things in the graveyard than in play.

Keyword: Dredge. A card with dredge can be returned from the graveyard to the player's hand by skipping a draw and instead putting a certain number of cards from their library into their graveyard. This number is specified after the word "dredge" on the card. For example, Greater Mossdog is a creature with dredge 3. If the Mossdog is in the graveyard, its owner can skip drawing a card and putting the top 3 cards of their library into their graveyard, and return the Mossdog to their hand. (Oracle Text: Dredge X - If you would draw a card, instead you may put exactly X cards from the top of your library into your graveyard. If you do, return this card from your graveyard to your hand. Otherwise, draw a card.)

Signet: Their Signet is an insect's head with two snakes circling it. The snakes represent the Golgari cycle of Life, death and rebirth.

The Selesnya Conclave

Depending on your point of view, the Conclave is either a selfless, nurturing, spiritual group or a brainwashing nature cult. The Selesnya Conclave are the oldest guild in Ravnica. This guild bolsters its membership through recruitment, bringing outsiders into the fold with ceaseless effort. Its structure is almost fully decentralized, a large council of beings that partially share a consciousness leads the Conclave. The Selesnya make their home in Vitu-Ghazi, the ancient tree standing in the center of Ravnica's oldest and largest district.

The Selesnya always seeks to grow the guild's ranks, sometimes literally. The Conclave commands many saprolings and larger elemental creatures for labor and guardianship, and its evangels cry the guild's praises on every major street corner.

Also Known As: The Conclave

Parun: Mat'Selesnya, an elemental dryad which was made when then other dryads combined together to form her. She is also like a power source for the Guildpact

Guild Leader: The Chorus of the Conclave, a collection of dryads that share one mind; even though in the book the Conclave's members aren't only dryads, they include at least a loxodon, elf and a wolf, among others.

Guild Champion: Tolsimir Wolfblood, with wolf mount Voja.

Guild Hall: Vitu-Ghazi, the City Tree. Once the greatest tree in the world. Although struck down ages ago, dryad and elf magic keeps Vitu-Ghazi alive. Its trunk houses the Selesnya's most important places.

Values: Welfare of the whole. Taking into account both white's and green's concern for the community, the Conclave is perfect at both protecting and nurturing a great amount of small creatures.

Structure: Decentralized, communal, collective. Within the Conclave, ideally all are equals regardless of individual roles.

Colours: Green and White

Play Style: The Selesnya are much like the Boros, in that they tend to win by amassing a huge army to overwhelm the opponent. The difference is that the Boros tend to win with their army using combat tricks, while the Selesnya just try to protect it up until the point where they've got too much for the opponent to handle, and go across to win in one fell swoop. Selesnya decks usually only have few creatures, though - their main aim is to make creatures through the use of tokens. Many Selesnya cards put 1/1 green Saproling creature tokens into play, then use those tokens to get even more out.

Keyword: Convoke. To play a card with convoke, you can tap some of your creatures instead of paying the cost. Each creature you tap reduces the mana cost of the convoke spell by either one mana of the creature's colour, or by one colourless mana. For example, instead of paying the mana cost of Guardian of Vitu-Ghazi, you can tap three green creatures, two white creatures, and pay 3 mana. Or you can tap four green creatures and four white creatures to play it for free. (Oracle Text: Convoke - Each creature you tap while playing this spell reduces its cost by 1 or by one mana of that creature’s color.)

Signet: The signet is a tree, whose branches extend into sun rays.

House Dimir

House Dimir, the Unseen, the Tenth Guild, a figment, a tale told to children to keep them in line. According to folklore, the vampire lord Szadek attended the signing of the Guildpact as a secret tenth signatory whose presence and existence were hidden from view. Over the millennia, ghost stories about the Dimir grew more and more complex, telling of ancient, undead necromancer-advisors, called the necrosages, phantasmal assassins, and slick, black horrors slithering through the endless maze of sewers under the city. If you listened to Ravnica's more suspicious and paranoid denizens, you might have come to believe that House Dimir's agents were everywhere, all serving as Szadek's eyes and ears.

Also known as: The Unseen

Guild Leader/Parun: Szadek, an eldritch psionic vampire and alleged tenth parun (alleged because few citizens on the plane are even sure he even exists, the Guildpact contained a clause which prohibited the other paruns officially revealing his presence)

Guild Champion: Circu, a lobotomist who makes sure those who come too close to Dimir's secrets won't remember a thing.

Guild Hall: Duskmantle, House of Shadow

Values: House Dimir wants utter control of Ravnica. Such absolute control requires complete invisibility so as not to arouse opposition. Therefore, Dimir works very hard to ensure that Ravnicans don't believe the guild exists.

Structure: Isolated cells. Each Dimir agent works in almost complete isolation. Often, any operative within the guild has just one contact, so that none have too wide a view of its dealings. Dimir leaders issue commands through messenger spirits known as Necrosages or other magical means to preserve anonymity.

Colours: Blue and Black

Play Style: Wizards of the Coast made Dimir the trickiest guild to play. It has many different play styles, which keeps in with the theme of being a guild which you never know what to expect from. One game with a Dimir deck may be completely different from the other. However, the most obvious route to victory a Dimir deck will take is milling the opponent (getting rid of their library so they lose the game through being unable to draw).

Keyword: Transmute. Instead of playing a card with transmute, you can instead pay the transmute cost and discard it to search your library for any card with the same converted mana cost, reveal it, put it into your hand, and shuffle your library. (Oracle Text: Transmute X - Pay X, Discard this card: Search your library for a card with the same converted mana cost as this card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library. Play only as a sorcery.)

Signet: The signet is a spider with an eye on its back.

The Orzhov Syndicate

To find the Orzhov, the saying goes, follow the gold. The so-called Guild of Deals contains both Ravnica’s richest citizens and its most oppressed. At the guild’s highest echelons sit the patriarchs, whose wealth and privilege know no bounds. Their usury buys them a prolonged life of incredible excess. It even buys them undeath—spirits of past patriarchs rule the Orzhov from beyond the grave. At the depths of the guild are the indentured servants trapped by crushing debt, whether incurred by them, their parents, or even their distant ancestors. Holding this fragile social order in place is a veneer of religious pomp and ritual, though few believe the Orzhov worship any god other than coin.

The Orzhov are the wealthiest and most ostentatious of the guilds. Their halls (which look and feel like a cross between a cathedral and a bank) are robed in black marble and gold. Flying buttresses and tall gothic arches abound. The guild is led by a group of patriarchs – some alive, most undead. The richest and most powerful of the living patriarchs arrange for master necromancers to ensure that their spirits will linger after death so they can continue to control the “family business.”

The patriarchs are human, but they live so long and so decadently that they essentially become nothing more than bags of grey flesh. These patriarchs are the living versions of the ghosts that make up the Orzhov ruling council, the Obzedat.

Like many castes within the guild, clerics often carry masks on poles as a symbolic show of hiding their faces – out of deceit as well as shame and obeisance. Aside from the ghost-patriarch plutocrats of the guild, its other spirits are mostly ornamental. They serve as heralds, sentries, and symbols of the guild’s persistence and longevity.

Also known as: The Guild of Deals

Guild Leader: The Ghost Council of Orzhova, or the Obzedat. They are a group of powerful, wealthy undead Orzhov patriarchs, and each is an archbishop and kingpin rolled into one, all vying for more influence and gold than he or she already wields. The Orzhov parun, while unnamed, is likely still part of the Obzedat.

Guild Champion: Teysa, Orzhov Scion. Equal parts ambition and execution. With a few well-chosen words and a couple of well-planned smiles, she can make practically anyone dance to her tune.

Guild Hall: Orzhova, the Church of Deals, central cathedral of the entire religion/syndicate. It’s not clear even to the guild faithful whether Orzhova is a cathedral with financial interests or a bank with religious ones.

Values: The Orzhov use their oppressive social order as a means to ensure power-the entire guild is set up to keep the rich rich and the poor poor. The guild’s rites and rituals, its laws and structures, exist to maintain the status quo.

Colours: Black and White

Structure: Oligarchic, with a sharp division between the privileged and the indentured. The guild is practically two guilds; one for the 'haves', one for the 'have nots'.

Play Style: An Orzhov deck usually wins by "bleeding" the opponent - that is, rather than making them lose large chunks of life at a time, they rather make them lose small amounts of life, a lot of the time. That is why many Orzhov cards, including the Guildmage, hall, and leader, make your opponent lose 1 life. Most Orzhov cards also let you gain life while making your opponent lose it, which keeps in with the "taxing" theme of the guild.

Keyword: Haunt. A card with haunt has an effect (for instants and sorceries this effects happens when it resolves; for creatures, it is a triggered ability when it comes into play). When the card with haunt goes to the graveyard, you remove it from the game and choose a creature in play to "haunt". When the haunted creature goes to the graveyard, you get the effect again. For example, Cry of Contrition makes your opponent discard a card, then it haunts a creature. When that creature goes to a graveyard, your opponent discards another card. (Oracle Text: Haunt - When this card is put into a graveyard from play, remove it from the game haunting target creature.)

Signet: The signet is an eclipsed sun.

The Izzet League

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The Izzet run hot and cold—literally. In fact, they keep nearly everything running, from Ravnica's heating networks to its water systems. The undisputed masters of spellcraft and invention on Ravnica, they're the only guild that understands metamagic: how magic itself works. Led by the capricious and unfathomably brilliant dragon Niv-Mizzet, the Izzet magewrights endlessly create and destroy, driven only by passion for discovery. Experts in elemental magic, the Izzet use elementals to guard their alchemical labs and power their turbines. They've even created their own crossbreed elementals called weirds. Unlike most other guilds, the Izzet fail to see the importance of power, dominion, or wealth. The rabid pursuit of knowledge is the guild's only concern.

The Izzet have designed most of the city’s infrastructure, such as systems for delivering water and heat. They are the inventors and designers in this world, although their facilities and alchemical labs are often powered by bound djinni, efreeti, and elementals.

The Izzet use alchemical devices to amplify their spellcasting, giving them great power. However, the result of intensive study and energy drain, wizards tend toward being elderly. They’re not, however, necessarily all old, nor are they male. Their costumes (flamboyant, due to the size of their dragon master's hoard) feature copper and gold, largely for their conductive properties.

Izzet soldiers also revel in flashy and ornate suits of armor, suitable for displaying their allegiances.

Also known as: The Magewrights

Guild Leader/Parun: Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind, a seemingly immortal dragon with a flair for inventions. He is by far the most intelligent being on Ravnica and will be the first to let you know of his superiority, although his temper has cost him more than his share of charbroiled apprentices. Among his creations is the weird, an artificial elemental that he intends to be the next generation of Izzet servitor. He is extremely vain, as shown in how many parts of the guild were crafted in his image (the name of the guild, the hall, the signet etc.)

Guild Champions: Tibor and Lumia, a powerful husband-wife wizard pair.

Guild Hall: Nivix, Aerie of the Firemind. This impossibly tall spire is said to be protected by the most sophisticated sigils ever devised. Within its uppermost chamber, Niv-Mizzet holds court with his most intelligent magewrights, eating those who displease him.

Structure: The Izzet are an association of like-minded passionate philosophers, all of whom idolize Niv-Mizzet’s genius and caprice. Fiery competition and the drive for knowledge keep the guild’s alchemical labs and colleges humming.

Values: The Izzet are great believers in passionate study. Often this manifests in random experiments and strange revisions to reflect their ever changing minds. They combine blue's need to learn more about the world with red's impulse, making a guild which learns through emotion. When an Izzet scholar finds something that it wants to study, they'll start studying it with unbridled relentlessness, until they find a new thing, usually a very short time afterwards, in which case they'll drop whatever they're doing and start on the new thing. This tendency to be easily distracted is the reason many Izzet experiments never get finished, but those that do tend to be grandiose and bombastic.

Colours: Blue and Red

Play Style: Casual Izzet decks tend to combine red's love of sorceries with blue's love of instants to make a deck based on nonpermanents. More rigorous decks tend to focus on the inherent synergy between red and blue; red provides direct damage and creature removal while blue provides card advantage (which red tends to not have) and permission (which can deal with non-creature threats, which red is poor at doing).

Keyword: Replicate. An instant or sorcery spell with replicate lets you make more copies of it by paying more mana. This cost is currently always the same as the mana cost. For example, the spell Gigadrowse taps a permanent and has a replicate cost of a single blue mana. For each time you pay the replicate cost, you get another copy of Gigadrowse (and therefore you get to tap another permanent). One creature, Djinn Illuminatus, gives all instant and sorcery spells you play the replicate ability. (Oracle Text: Replicate X - When you play this spell, copy it for each time you paid its replicate cost (X). You may choose new targets for the copies.)

Signet: The signet is a stylized dragon, modeled after Niv-Mizzet.

The Gruul Clans

Not that the Gruul would take the time (or learn the words) to explain this, but they feel civilization is a mockery, an elaborate cage that suppresses desire and makes the weak seem powerful. The Gruul live moment by moment, and they “encourage” others to do the same. Once a strong guild, the Gruul are now merely a loose assemblage of beggars, gangs, and raiding parties. The largest of the gangs has the largest leader: Borborygmos, a huge cyclops known for smashing dissent (among other things). Gruul gangs survive by pillaging and burning neighborhoods, then squatting on the rubble and ashes, living off what they find. When the resources run dry, it’s time for another raid.

Gruul humans often wear scavenged clothing and armor. Some (but not all) have ritual tattooing to indicate their allegiance to the guild. Gruul berserkers fight with weapons made from animals’ natural weapons.

Also known as: The Clans

Guild 'Leader': The Gruul have no leader, but if they did, it would be Borborygmos, a cyclops who rules the Gruul's largest clan. He is one of the Gruul's fiercest fighters, thus, this savage cyclops is usually at the head of the largest, most destructive raids. Borborygmos is said to be the grandson of the legendary Cisarzim.

Guild 'Champion': Ulasht, a legendary hydra who inhabits ruined areas of Ravnica, is revered by the Gruul as a symbol of ultimate anarchy.

Parun': According to the first novel, Cisarzim, a gigantic cyclops, was the Gruul parun.

Guild Hall: None. The Gruul guildhall was supposed to be a lodge-style guildhall, but it was destroyed long ago and its location has been lost to time. Now, the only thing the Gruul have that even comes close to a guildhall is Skarrg, the Rage Pits, the closest thing to natural landscape left on Ravnica and the center of Borborygmos's power.

Structure: Loose, disconnected gangs. The Gruul are sometimes called "the guild which is not one," because they eschew any structure at all. Inside large cities, the beggars' guilds are often loyal to the Gruul. Outside the cities, the raiding gangs carve out swaths of smoldering ruin and rubble in which to subsist.

Values: The absolute breakdown of society. The Gruul believe that society has no place in the natural order. Call it instinct or impulse, the Gruul preach it just the same. They show an unrivaled bloodthirst, and that is represented well in the keyword of the same name. Bloodthirst grants your creatures a size boost if you damaged your opponent that turn.

Colours: Green and Red

Play Style: Smash, smash, smash. Gruul decks will blow up whatever the opponent puts in their way and press forward with the attack. The way they do this is different from the Selesnya and Boros, however. The Selesnya and Boros want to make a horde of small creatures, while the Gruul want to make the biggest creature they can. Selesnya and Boros want to put out a small creature turn one, turn two, and turn three, then multiple small creatures every turn afterwards. Gruul on the other hand will put out a creature turn one, a bigger one turn two, an even bigger one turn three, and so on until it has the biggest creature. And then, it'll try its best to make it even bigger.

Keyword: Bloodthirst. A creature with bloodthirst comes into play with +1/+1 counters if an opponent was dealt damage that turn. The number of +1/+1 counters is shown after the word "bloodthirst" on the card. For example, Ghor-Clan Savage is a creature with bloodthirst 3. If an opponent was dealt damage this turn, it comes into play with three +1/+1 counters. The number of opponents damaged, the number of times they were damaged, or the amount of damage doesn't matter. One special type of bloodthirst is bloodthirst X. In this case, X is the amount of damage dealt to all opponents that turn. (Oracle Text: Bloodthirst X - If an opponent was dealt damage this turn, this creature comes into play with X +1/+1 counter(s) on it.)

Signet: Their signet is a burning tree with a single eye in the middle.

The Azorius Senate

To the intellectual Azorius guild, knowledge is power. Absolutely hierarchical, the Azorius believe that their laws and the preservation of those laws are responsible for maintaining the Guildpact. In fact, they believe their rigid system of governance is responsible for keeping nearly everything on Ravnica running smoothly. Justice is blind, as the saying goes, and that includes the guild's blindness to dissent, chaos, and crime.

For this hierarchical and bureaucratic guild, history, stability, and the rule of law are paramount. Even Azorius field marshals are as likely to legislate against their foes as they are to fight them. After all, why damage that pristine, pearlescent armor? Many of Ravnica's citizens have forgotten that the Azorius are Ravnica's official government. Who could blame them, when the guild seems designed solely to prevent anything from happening?

This guild, which was created by Azor I the Judge, who was a human Parun, can be described to have a totalitarian government, as it is described through the flavortexts of several cards that this is the guild that much is done to prevent anything being done. The card Prahv, Spires of Order embody this guild's ethos.

Also known as: The High Judges

Guild Leader: Grand Arbiter Augustin IV. Augustin has presided over the Azorius for decades, dispensing judgement with cold efficiency. Rumors abound that Augustin relies too heavily on his spirit-councilors, but none dare question his methods. Without eyes to gaze upon sympathy or legs to stray from the path of justice, he embodies the essence of justice.

Guild Champion: Isperia, the Inscrutable. A sphinx who provides cryptic advice to the Azorius leaders which only they can understand.

Parun: The Human High Judge, Azor I

Guild Hall: Prahv, Spires of Order. It is a veritable city of marble and alabaster, a maze of long, echoing corridors and domed chambers. Tight rows of soldiers, spotlessly outfitted, guard the whole campus. But the guild's powerful law-magic, not the swords of its standing guard, protects Prahv.

Values: The Azorius believe that their laws and the preservation of those laws are responsible for maintaining the Guildpact. In fact, they believe their rigid system of governance is responsible for keeping nearly everything on Ravnica running smoothly. Justice is blind, as the saying goes, and that includes the guild's blindness to dissent, chaos, and crime.

Colours: White and Blue

Structure: Absolutely hierarchical. Most Azorius functionaries report to one superior and have two guild members that report to them, creating a pyramidal command structure.

Play Style: Harsh and controlling, Azorius decks want to lock the opponent out of the game. They will do all they can to make life difficult for the opponent. They'll try to stop them from attacking, or even stop them from playing their spells. Once they have got the opponent into a position in which they practically has to ask the Azoirus player's permission to do anything, they will move in for a swift win.

Keyword: Forecast (not a true keyword). A player can pay a card's forecast cost and reveal the card from their hand to generate some effect, either a lesser effect of the actual spell or a support effect to the main spell. A forecast ability can only be played once per turn, and only during your upkeep.

Signet: Their signet is a labyrinth within a triangle.

The Cult of Rakdos

Formed by the followers of the demonlord Rakdos, if someone in Ravnica needs workers, mercenaries, or assassins, this murder-happy guild is the only place to turn to. Their whole philosophy is wanton destruction, for the sheer pleasure of destroying things. They're too chaotic to have a long-term goal, though they're playing right into the Gruul desires.

Also known as: The Thrill-killers

Guild Leader/Parun: Rakdos the Defiler. A fiery abomination whose origins are unknown to all but him. Rakdos has entertained himself with Ravnica's citizenry for thousands of years, maintaining a cult of personality whose numbers don't increase only because of the guild's high mortality rate. Though Lyzolda does most of the work leading the guild according to the third novel.

Guild Champion Lyzolda, the Blood Witch, the mistress of ceremonies to the Rakdos party. In the book, her name is misspelled as "Izolda"

Guild Hall: Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace. A grotesque palace in the dank part of the Undercity. Very few guild members have seen the inside of the palace. Many who manage to emerge are too incoherent to describe it. If Prahv is the coldest place on Ravnica, Rix Maadi is the hottest.

Structure: Like an out-of-control party. The guild's only structure is determined by those powerful enough to hold leadership. Such beings tend to have short lifespans.

Values and Gameplay: Instant gratification. The Rakdos don't just want their way, they want it RIGHT NOW. How this translates gameplay-wise is an all out suicide strategy. Combine Red's recklessness with Black's masochistic tendencies, and you find yourself in front of a determined enemy who will go to any length to achieve the goal as quickly as possible. This, of course, is reflected in the guild's keyword, hellbent. Hellbent grants bonuses to cards assuming you have an empty hand. The best way to do that? Play masses of small threats that grow bigger as your hand shrinks.

Colors: Red and Black

Keyword: Hellbent (not a true keyword). A card with hellbent gets better if its controller has no cards in their hand, whether by gaining extra functionality, added strength, or, if a creature, extra power or toughness.

Signet: The signet is a crumbling skull on fire.

The Simic Combine

The Simic's original role in Ravnica was to protect and preserve what was left of Ravnica's natural ecosystems. They failed, and there is no place on Ravnica that is left to nurture. Now, the Simic Combine spends their resources "improving" the already existing life in Ravnica - whether or not the life in question wants to be improved at all! The rest of their time is spent creating new - and often frightening - species of creatures that not only survive in the concrete jungles of Ravnica, but thrive.

Also known as: The Biomancers

Guild Leader: Momir Vig, Simic Visionary. The visionary pioneer of cytoplastic technology. The guild quickly took up Vig's banner after his first success at creating specialized lifeforms. Vig believes the key to evolving life on Ravnica is to "design" it for the city.

Guild Champion: Experiment Kraj, an experimental monstrosity of a creature that has the power to choose its own evolution. The brainchild of Momir Vig himself, a product of his desire to create the ultimate life form.

Guild Hall: Novijen, Heart of Progress. A bizarre hybrid of living matter and chiseled stone, it is held in place by thick, umbilical cables that keep it isolated from the surrounding buildings. Here, the Combine design and perfect their most secret biological projects.

Structure: A cross between a college, a laboratory, and a zoo. Hundreds of years ago, a sharp line existed between the guild's experimental subjects and the researchers studying and protecting them. Since Vig's ascension, however, that line has blurred.

Values and Gameplay: Nurturing evolution. The Simic see evolution as a great thing. If they can influence evolution to produce better results, they feel satisfied in their work. The Simic style of play seems to focus on building better creatures over time. The keyword graft is a means of evolving the creatures on your side by making them stronger as each comes into play, with strategies revolving around the use of +1/+1 counters.

Colours: Green and Blue

Keyword: Graft. A creature with graft comes into play with a certain number of +1/+1 counters on it. Whenever another creature comes into play, you may move a +1/+1 counter from the graft creature onto it. Most graft creatures can grant abilities to any creature with a +1/+1 counter on it, reflecting the genetic transfer properties of cytoplasts. (Oracle Text: Graft X - This creature comes into play with X +1/+1 counters on it. Whenever another creature comes into play, you may move a +1/+1 counter from this creature onto it.)

Signet: Their guild symbol is a tree that grows out and to one side, its branches twisting like a tidal wave.

Races & occupations of Ravnica

The following sentient races are known to exist on Ravnica:

Locations

Aside from the aforementioned guild-related places, there is another place which is very well known in Ravnia: The Tin-Street Market. The Tin-Street Market is a huge location, stretching on for miles. You can find pretty much any and every commodity somewhere in the market.

The Rubblefield, once a place where the wealth of Ravnica lived, earned its name in a single day when a Siege Wurm wreaked havoc and laid the location to waste.

Gnat Alley, is the longest alley in Ravnica, and serves as a home to criminals and the unruly.

External links

 

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