This article was originally published on 5/19/06.  ~Streetz~

One of the most unique things about the Ravnica design is the guild model. The traditional set design has always been “introduce main themes” in the first set, “modify main themes” in the second set, and “modify main theme even more and add small sub-theme that doesn’t really go with the rest of the block” in the final set. It’s something we’ve been seeing for quite a few years now, with examples as recent as Sunburst and “5 colors matters” in 5th Dawn, and “hand size matters” and Evermind in Saviors of Kamigawa.

Ravnica: The City of Guilds has turned this design gospel on its ear. Instead of going with the create, modify, modify model, the guild model is specifically created to make each set a new creation experience. Each set presents four or three of the ten guilds of the plane of Ravnica, and because each guild has its own separate identity, each guild needs its own ability, and therefore, no old keywords or mechanics could be brought over from set to set. Whether these keywords are Hellbent or Dredge, Transmute or Bloodthirst, each is different, and together they’ve created interactions and decks that have rocked the Standard (T2) scene.

This kind of separation is good: it adds to the flavor of each guild, and makes the Limited format a much more interesting beast. But, this type of separation between sets creates some potential problems, one of which is the loss of continuity between sets. Designers were asked, “How can themes hold over when you’re working with a new group of guilds each set?” When the design team for Ravnica: City of Guilds put out the first 4 guilds under the guild model, they needed a way to connect the four guilds, and connect them to the 6 other guilds to come. Their solution? Certain cards, especially mana-fixers and non-basic lands, would be consistent throughout the block.

The Guildmages are a part of this continuity pattern. As a quick aside, Guildmages are the most common power players on the streets of Ravnica. Each one represents the ideals and powers of their Guild, and with their brethren, can cast powerful spells over and over again. As such, each guild has to have Guildmages, even the loosely tied Gruul clans.

Every guild has a Guildmage that costs two hybrid mana. Each mana on the Golgari Guildmage can be paid for with a black or green mana, effectively meaning he can either cost BB, GG, or BG. This means that each Guildmage is effectively playable in a mono-color deck, and is relatively easy to play in a two color deck. Also, because each Guildmage is a two mana creature, each one can hit the board early to provide some nice beating power, or late in the game to throw some of their powerful abilities into the fray.

Another similarity between Guildmages is that every Guildmage is a 2/2. For two mana, this power/toughness to cost ratio gives the Guildmages a nickname from one of the earliest Magic cards ever printed: Grizzly Bears. A 2/2 for 2 is commonly called a bear, and this cycle of 10 bears fits into the uncommon slot. That’s 5 bears for allied color pairs (RB, BU, UW, WG and GR), and 5 bears for enemy color pairs (RU, UG, GB, BW, WR). That’s a lot of bear!

So, each Guildmage is a little nice just being a 2/2 for 2, especially in color combinations like Red/Blue and Blue/Black (which should never get 2/2s for 2), but that’s not such a big deal. Green and White get 2/2s for 2 all the time, why should these Guildmages matter? What makes them great?

The thing that makes the Guildmages great is that each Guildmage has two abilities, one for each of the colors of the guild with which they are associated. These abilities represent the flavor of the guilds. For example the Golgari Guildmage has an ability that gives +1/+1 counters, and an ability that will allow you to sacrifice a creature to get a creature from your graveyard back in your hand. This growth and unholy rebirth is what Golgari do best, and their Guildmage represents that very well. But the thing is, not only are these abilities flavorful, they’re also powerful.

Here’s the thing: You’ve got this 2/2 for 2, with two good abilities, all the while sitting in the uncommon slot. This means that Guildmages are easier to get ahold of than all of the chase rares everyone talks about, which in turn makes them easier to work with, especially if you’re on a budget. Guildmages are a budget player’s friend.

But enough about flavor and cohesive set talk: We’re here to talk about how Guildmages can make amazing decks!

Each Guildmage has something about them that you can abuse, whether it’s Azorius Guildmage tapping down the competition and stopping players from using abilities like Transmute and cards like Vitu-Ghazi, the City Tree, Golgari Guildmage permanently pumping your guys, or Selesnya Guildmage creating a horde of Saprolings to abuse with Glare of Subdual. And, if each Guildmage can be abused, then each Guildmage has a deck to be built around it, and while I’m not going to do all of them, I’ve got quite a few decks. AND, in true Death_By_Beebles style, each deck sports only 4 rares, so all of you loyal readers who enjoyed Einsteinmonkey’s article now have something to work with. Also, a la Raiding the Dollar Bins, each deck will have card suggestions and helpful tips: I can’t just give up what everyone is used to completely!

Just Wait ‘till You Dimir it!

Dimir: the Guild of Secrets. In the realm of Ravnica flavor and storyline, the House Dimir is a guild that isn’t supposed to even exist. It’s the guild of lies, guild of spirits and spies. It deals in information and the removal of information. It is then appropriate that the Dimir Guildmage should be able to make players draw and discard cards.

Dimir Guildmage is an amazing card. I say this, because it’s true. Its ability to give you card advantage is monstrous, especially in Limited, and it is by far one of my favorite Guildmages. Playing against Team CMU player Ervin Tormos at a recent PTQ, this one little creature spelled disaster for me and for my deck as Dimir Guildmage was literally able to demolish what hand I had, and keep pressure on my board both games (I lost 0-2).

Along with his great abilities, he’s a 2/2 for 2 mana in one of the color combinations that should never get that kind of efficiency. It is then, appropriate that I use the Guildmage of “the Guild of Secrets” to build my first deck of the article.

So, how do you abuse Dimir Guildmage?

One card quickly comes to mind, and that card is Megrim. Let’s take a look at my first deck.

Dimir Guildmage is a constant discard effect. In this deck, you’ll be using your cards to keep your opponent out of cards, and eventually beat through with Abyssal Nocturnus or deal a hefty 20 damage with Megrim.

With Megrim you can deal 2 points of damage every turn via the Dimir Guildmage. Not only will he deal damage, he’ll also keep your opponent in topdeck mode, making it even easier for you to win the game. Dimir Guildmage also keeps your hand full of cards, so you’ll never be in want for a creature or answer. As you draw many cards and have your opponent discard cards, the idea is that you’ll eventually win the game through 1 and 2 power attacks, or through a beefy Abyssal Nocturnus or a Megrim.

Cephalid Looter and Lore Broker have been added to the deck in order to force through discards when your opponent has no cards in grip. These two cards and their “draw a card, discard a card” policy will always net you 2 damage, and will also make Abyssal Nocturnus, the only rare in the deck, into a wonderful fear-causing beatstick.

Consult the Necrosages has been added to do extra discarding damage, and may be used to draw into other answers in case you run out of cards in hand. Ribbons of Night takes care of pesky creatures your opponents might try to play and with the optional blue, it can replace itself with a new card. Dimir Machinations can slow your opponent down by limiting their draws to bad cards, but its Transmute ability is probably the most important, as it allows you to fetch a Nocturnus, Cephalid Looter, or Megrim.

Things to Remember

1) You can only activate Dimir Guildmage during your turn. Because his draw and discard abilities work at sorcery speed, they can only be played during your turn. This means that once your opponent is in topdeck mode, if they can drop each card they draw, you’ll have to use Cephalid Looter and Lorebroker to force through Megrim damage.

2) Transmute tutoring wins games. Dimir Machinations effectively adds 4 more copies of Megrim and 4 more copies of Abyssal Nocturnus to your deck. If you’ve got this bad boy in hand, you can fetch these two cards, plus Consult the Necrosages and Cephalid Looter. This makes Machinations one of your most versatile cards. Take advantage of it.

3) Attack! Megrim is nice, but what happens if you get caught with a Cranial Extraction or Castigate? The answer my friend, is to attack. If you limit your opponents hand options, you limit their playing options. This means that the closer you get to shutting your opponent’s hand down, the quicker you can assume control of the game. Adding that extra 1 or 2 damage when you can, especially with disposable creatures like Ravenous Rats, means you can finish the game sooner to prevent comebacks.

Suggestions for Card Additions

If you’ve got the cash, I suggest you get 4 Watery Graves to add to this deck. The shock lands (which is what the Ravnica dual lands have been affectionately nicknamed) smooth out your mana, but their pretty pricey.

If you want to keep the board relatively clean to have your little guys take over the game after your opponent is out of cards, check out Last Gasp, Disembowel, and Darkblast. These three cards from Ravnica are some of the best uncommon/common creature removal I’ve seen in a long time, so take advantage of this removal.

You could, change the direction of this deck and play cards like Secret Keeper and Deathmask Nezumi to win the game. With all your discard effects, it should be no problem keeping more cards in hand than your opponent, and Dimir Guildmage will help you get to the 7 cards you need to make your Nezumi a 4/3.

Hybrid mana cards like Gleancrawler, Minister of Impediments, Debtors Knell, and Mourning Thrull are also viable choices. Gleancrawler is nice because it not only protects your creatures from destruction, it is a healthy 6/6 for six mana. Debtors Knell is especially mean, as you can have your opponent discarding some of his best creatures, only for that opponent to see those very same creatures the he or she could have been winning the game with on your side of the board next turn.

If you want to restructure this deck in another different way, check into copies of Underworld Dreams. That way, you can kill your opponent in more ways than one. Suddenly, your Lorebrokers and Cephalid Looters will do three damage instead of two, and no matter how your opponent slices it, they’re going to be loosing life little by little each turn. If you’re adding Underworld Dreams, consider adding another rare, Teferi's Puzzle Box. The Puzzle Box, with its drawing ability, makes games short and brutal with Underworld Dreams on the table, and Megrim is just icing on the cake.

Smile, it’s Simic!

Now where Dimir Guildmage is good just because of its power level, my next Guildmage, and probably most favorite, is good because of his straight up coolness factor. I’m sure you have got your own opinions on the coolest Guildmage, but this is one elf you just can’t help but smile when you look at it. Simic Guildmage, you’re up!

Simic Guildmage has two abilities that modify creatures on the board. For 1U you can move a Pillory of the Sleepless around to different opposing creatures, move a +1/+1 counter to your own blocking creature to save him for 1G, or kill an opponent’s Graft creature.

With this deck, we’re going to use a specific ability of the Guildmage and focus on it. See what I’m talking about below.

With this deck, we’re specifically working with Simic Guildmage’s ability to move Auras around, although the counter moving ability wasn’t exactly ignored either. Gristleback is a nice 3/3 for 3, and his bloodthirst is easy to achieve in this deck. Also, Vinelasher Kudzu makes things interesting if you can play it out on turn two or three, to let it make lots of +1/+1 counters you can then move around to all your creatures!

Using Phantom Warrior, Infiltrator’s Magemark, or Flight of Fancy, a fully ‘aura’ed creature can attack for large amounts of damage each turn. This one evasive creature idea comes to fruition with wonderful enchantments like Elephant Guide and Moldervine Cloak. This is where you win the game, as your opponents won’t be able to handle that much power that quickly, and if they do have the stray removal spell, Moldervine Cloak never actually goes away, and Elephant Guide leaves behind a wonderful little present for you.

The nice little combo between Fists of Ironwood and Bramble Elemental hasn’t been overlooked, I assure you. If you want to swarm over your opponents, you can get 2 1/1 saproling tokens for 2GG as many times as you want to pay the cost, or, if you manage to get two Bramble Elementals in play, you can get 2 1/1 tokens for 1G! Drake Familiar is a nice 2 power flyer, but it’s primarily in the deck to bounce Fists or Flight of Fancy back to your hand to replay.

Things to Remember

1) Gristleback saves your butt. Gristleback acts as a good stop guard. If you get low on life, he’s a great because he’s 3 damage for 3 mana, and 3 life to boot. This three power is pretty easy to reach, especially with cards like Phantom Warrior on the field. He’ll not only swing for his 3 most of the time, but with a little Simic help and the aid of a Vinelasher Kudzu, you could add quite a lot of counters to the Bloodthirsty Warthog, which makes it not only a nice beatstick, but also a great life gain card. Yay for double utility!

2) Simic Skyswallower and you; Aura interactions. With Simic Guildmage, you can use him to move Auras onto untouchable creatures like Simic Skyswallower. This is because his ability only targets an Aura, and not a creature. This little bit of knowledge makes things a lot of fun, and besides that, it’s a good piece of info for you to have.

3) Infiltrator’s Magemark = amazing. If you’ve got two enchanted creatures on the board, and you play a creature and enchant it with Infiltrator’s Magemark, you’ve just created 3 attackers that can only be blocked by creatures with defender. Plus, they all get +1/+1, making them that much more painful.

Suggestions for Card Additions

I’m going to keep suggesting you get shock lands for the remainder of the article. I just want to reiterate how amazing these lands are; they’re awesome. If you have the chance, get them. They will serve you well for many years to come.

Since it is an Aura deck, I’m going to suggest maybe one or two copies of Verduran Enchantress, as she’ll help you draw into more cards to help win the game.

There are a lot of fun Aura cards like Leafdrake Roost and Living Terrain that can be used to their full advantage with Simic Guildmage. Along with that, cards like the Magemarks and Wurmweaver Coil from Ravnica block can be a lot fun.

You could go a different direction with this deck, making it black, white and blue, while moving around enchantments like Pacifism, Pillory of the Sleepless, and Faith’s Fetters. This more reactive type of deck is good if your opponents are playing creature heavy decks.

Is it the Izzet?

And now, we switch gears from the biosciences masters to the crazy tinkering scientists. The Izzet are passionate about research: in fact, they’re so passionate about it that right in the middle of an idea or experiment, these mages jump to a new plan, a new device, or a new hypothesis. They’re all over the place, but one thing they do extremely well is work with sorceries and instants.

Where the last deck worked by the Simic Guildmage’s flair for manipulating creatures, this next deck works by manipulating spells. In fact, it manipulates spells so well that it creates a three card infinite combo that’s currently in Standard!

That’s right, I’m sure you’ve all heard of the Izzet Guildmage/Lava Spike/Desperate Ritual combo. For a while, this combo was the “deck to break” in the Standard format, but just like every other three card combo, it’s just a little too hard to play well in a competitive format. Casually though, the combo can work, and work well. Let’s take a look at my take on the deck.

For those of you who have never seen this combo before, it works something like this: You have Izzet Guildmage in play, with 6 mana on the table free. You play Lava Spike, and splice Desperate Ritual onto it. You then use Izzet Guildmage’s ability to make a sorcery copy of it. Let that copy resolve, and use the 3 mana from the copy of Lava Spike/Desperate Ritual to make another copy of the spell, for a non-infinite but arbitrarily large amount of damage like, let’s say… 10 billion.

Propaganda and Drift of Phantasms keep opposing creatures at bay while you set up your combo. Drift can be transmuted for Propaganda if necessary, which is a nice little trick if you’re having problems with lots of creatures.

Jushi Apprentice and Compulsive Research set up more card draw to find scattered pieces of the puzzle that will win you the game. Eerie Procession searches for your Arcane combo spells, while Muddle the Mixture finds Izzet Guildmage and Desperate Ritual. Electrolyze provides a little creature control while drawing you a card, which can be quite handy in a pinch.

Things to Remember

1) Transmute plays only as a sorcery. Transmute, the ability of Muddle the Mixture that makes it a good card for this deck, can only be played as a sorcery, so, although it would be nice to play at the end of your opponent’s turn, it’s just not going to happen. Jushi Apprentice, however, should always be activated in the end of your opponent’s turn.

2) Play the whole combo. When one of your combo pieces is a permanent, you run the risk of loosing it if you play it before you play out the rest of the combo. For Izzet Guildmage, this could be anything from Shock to Electrolyze, Last Gasp to Enfeeblement. It’ll cost 8 mana to pull off the combo if you play the Guildmage the turn you go off, but if your opponent is running a lot of creature hate, then it’s a good idea to hold off on playing your little bear.

3) Propaganda. This card from back in Tempest should still be pretty available at card shops and internet sites, but if you want, you can splash white with Hallowed Fountain or Sacred Foundry to play Ghostly Prison from Kamigawa and make the deck T2 legal. Also, this ability triggers as your opponent declares attackers. This means he has to pay for each attacking creature when he declares attacks. It’s something to remember next time you play.

Suggestions for Card Additions

Steam Vents is a nice card for this deck. ‘Nuff said.

The major problem with any combo deck is that you have to find all of the pieces for it to work. I’ve used some pretty cheap tutors, but if you’re looking to do things faster, a good tutor to replace Muddle the Mixture might be Mystical Tutor. Mystical tutor will grab any sorcery or instant for 1 mana, and you’ll draw it next turn.

An interesting idea for this deck is to completely change colors from blue and red to red and black. You can still play the combo, and you’ll get cards like Dark Confidant, Phyrexian Arena, Night’s Whisper, Infernal Tutor, and Diabolic Tutor, to name a few. With this sort of deck, not only would you be searching for your tutor pieces, you’d also be using Izzet Guildmage to copy these tutors and sorceries to gain card advantage.

Rakdos Wins Up! (Wow, that pun is terrible)

Yes, with Rakdos, go on and rack those wins up. I’ll stop now… I promise.

Rakdos is an interesting guild simply because the two most destructive colors teamed up and made one of the more powerful mechanics in the set: empty-handedness. Normally, having no cards in grip is a bad thing, but the Rakdos are just that awesome. When you have no cards, they reward you with Hellbent, a key word that makes creatures stronger and spells more powerful.

Hellbent is conditional ability. As soon as you have a card in hand, Hellbent shuts off. It’s like Threshold in that you have to meet a certain requirement (in Threshold’s case, 7 cards in the graveyard) to get the ability.

So how do you abuse Rakdos Guildmage? You abuse Rakdos Guildmage by using his black ability to get Hellbent! And what’s better to discard than Madness spells? Let’s see what I’m talking about.

Ideally, the deck uses both components of the deck, its efficient weenies that make you discard a card and discard effects along with amazing Madness burn such as Violent Eruption and Fiery Temper to win the game. While you’re beating down with your 3/3s for 2 mana, you’re also burning out your opponent with cards like Shock and Chain of Plasma.

The idea here is to get into top deck mode as fast as possible so that you can take advantage of Hellbent as quick as possible. Both the Drekavac and Minotaur Explorer have been added to the deck as Hellbent enablers, and as Madness enablers.

Rakdos Guildmage serves a dual purpose; In this deck, he not only discards you cards, he gets rid of creatures on the other side of the field so that you can swing through with your little men. Dread Slag and Anthem of Rakdos are wonderful finisher cards, and are my 4 rares for the deck.

Things to Remember

1) Madness is played as a card is discarded. Basically, Madness states that if you were to discard the card with Madness, you can pay its Madness cost and play the card instead. That means that all those discard effects you have in your deck won’t be actually wasting cards, as you’ll be able to play cards like Fiery Temper for R instead of 1RR.

2) Chain of Plasma… well, it chains. Chain of Plasma is nice for this deck because you get 3 damage for 2 mana, which isn’t bad, BUT, if your opponent wants to send it back at you, they can discard a card to play a copy of the spell. If they chain it back to you, you can respond by discarding a card to copy it again! You can do this as many times as your opponent wants to discard cards. The best thing about Chain of Plasma is that you can choose to discard a Madness card, so you never actually loose the card to deal that extra 3 damage.

Suggestions for Card Additions

Blood Crypt… yeah, it’s good.

Avatar of Discord, the newest Avatar to see print, is a lovely 5/3 flyer for 3 hybrid Rakdos mana. Only drawback to her is that you have to discard 2 cards for her to see play… but wait, in this deck, that’s not a drawback at all! If you aren’t a fan of Dread Slag, this efficient beat-stick may be the way to go. Another idea might be to replace Dread Slag with Firemane Angel, and splash white. It’ll gain you life if you discard it, and you can always get it back!

Another idea is to replace Minotaur Explorer with Jagged Poppet, a card that, depending on how you use it, can be a real beatstick, or a Hellbent and Madness enabler.

Flashback cards such as Chainer’s Edict, Firebolt, Lightning Surge and Volley of Boulders are also good choices, simply because you can discard them and still use them later in the game. If you don’t discard them, they’re good for two terms of duty, and it’s always nice to have something to rely on when you’re out of cards and Hellbent on your opponent’s destruction.

Without reservation, I suggest that every budget player get a playset of every Guildmage. They’re great cards, and they’re easy on the wallet. Hopefully I’ve given you some ideas for decks of your own featuring these wonderful bears. As this week wraps up, so does school, and along with that comes summer! For all you out there who don’t know what that means, it’s quite simple: more frequent Raiding the Dollar Bins, the results of my last contest, and possibly a new contest!

Until next time, this is Death_By_Beebles, signing out!

If you have a supposed junk or dollar rare that you would like Death_By_Beebles to cover in Raiding the Dollar Bins, contact him at : deathbybeebles@yahoo.com

You can discuss this article in the MDV forums here.

Articles Spotlights from 2006
The Games People Play - Tactical Magic.
If I worked at R&D
The Beginner’s Guide to Rogue
Druid Week Primer
Opting In: Ravnica
MDV Idol: Finale!
Avatar Week Primer
Delusions of Mediocrity: Getting Stuffy in Here.
Raiding Ravnica: Guildmages and You!
Lands-More than Mana: Part One