Farewell, Guilds of Ravnica

If you follow standard, you know that September is 'rotation month'- when the 4 oldest sets in standard rotate out of the format. The cards can still be used, of course- be it in other formats (modern, pioneer, commander, etc.) or casually. But since they're leaving standard, prices for single cards will drop (in most cases) as players seek to update their favorite decks for the format.  This month, I'll look at each set that's leaving, lamenting the cards I'll miss or celebrating the ones I won't.  First up: Guilds of Ravnica (GRN).

Released in September 2018, GRN was a second return to the plane of Ravnica- introduced in a quite popular block released in 2005-6 and then revisited in 2012-13. Ravnica features 10 two-colored 'guilds' (see below illustration), each with their own tendencies (meaning mechanics/keywords). Not surprisingly, the set was heavy on multi-colored cards.  GRN focused on five guilds: Boros (W/R), Dimir (U/B), Golgari (B/G), Izzet (R/U), and Selesnya (G/W); the following expansion focused on the other five.

The 10 guilds of Ravnica; image from here

GRN was a nice set. I tried to make competitive decks in all guild flavors; my favorites were Izzet and Selesnya.

Favorites
Here are my favorite cards, meaning cards I played frequently or enjoyed playing:

White's entries were mainstays in several of my decks. Conclave Tribunal is a great removal card- especially when you have an army on the battlefield. Healer's Hawk is a must in any life gain deck, and Hunted Witness was useful in several situations.

 I like mill decks, so blue's Drowned Secrets was a favorite. Sinister Sabotage was a counterspell with a nice 'surveil' bonus.

 Two black creatures were mainstays: Midnight Reaper (great for card draw) and Plaguecrafter (flexible removal abilities).

Lava Coil is a great red spell- the exile feature was particularly handy against those annoying cards that did 'fun' things when they died. Risk Factor was a must in my burn deck, and it's jump-start ability made it twice as powerful.

 For green, Beast Whisperer's ability was quite nice (and will probably be in every green commander deck I make). Pelt Collector could get big fast- very handy.

In multi-colored, two Selesnya cards were especially fun- Knight of Autumn (so flexible) and March of the Multitudes (such potential). Niv-Mizzet was an amazing creature almost guaranteed to give me a win, and Thought Erasure was a very common (and powerful) inclusion in any blue/black deck.

Good Riddance
Upon reflection, GRN did not have a lot of cards I detested. Niv-Mizzet and Thought Erasure, though favorites, were super annoying to play against, so they might make this list, too. Perhaps two others . . .

Ritual of Soot is a great card, but I fell victim to it frequently. Thief of Sanity was very annoying when that came out early, especially as I didn't know which card was chosen. Ugh.

Overall
I had no big problems with GRN, and enjoyed the themes. It was a solid, if not spectacular, set overall.

Farewell, Guilds of Ravnica. See you in commander.