magic the gathering

[Ebon_Drake]

I don't know about that, it seems to me that the only guilds that are unplayable tounament-wise are Dimir, Izzet and possibly Rakdos.

Selesnya saw plenty of play with Loxodon Hierarch and watchwolf, whilst Ghazi-Glare is still a decent deck IMO. I have a lot of love for the Golgari so I might overrate them, but I've found dredge/reanimation to be a decent strategy, especially in extended. On the flipside, I hate Boros, but Boros Deck Wins was popular when Ravnica was released and I think it still sees play (admittedly though, the last time I met it I absolutely tore it apart.) Dimir got severely nerfed due to concerns over the power of decking in Limited environments so they're the only Ravnica guild that never saw any real tournament play, although they can be fun in casual and Transmute is a very useful mechanic.

For Guildpact, Orzhov decks are everywhere (I should know, I've got one) and so I could see an argument that they are dominating in that set. However, I've also seen a lot of Gruul decks around due to Kird Ape being in 9th and the strength of Burning-Tree Shaman. I haven't seen much of the Izzet, probably due to their unreliability, but like Dimir they might be fun in casual.

I haven't played enough with Dissension's guilds to properly judge them, but Rakdos's play style disagrees with me and I've seen decks based on them self-destruct on a number of occasions. However, they do have some solid cards like the Guildmage and Demonfire so they might be OK. I've seen Azorius control used effectively at FNM so I wouldn't write them off either. Simic I've not seen much of, but I'd guess Simic Sky Swallower alone makes them worth considering.

All in all, I'd say Ravnica Block has the most diverse metagame since at least Odyssey Block and there certainly isn't a single all-dominating deck like Ravager-affinity, which I'm very happy about. Out of interest though, which guilds have you found are more powerful than the others?

[NeonBlack]

Nah, not really. I'd say the proof of the relative balance of Rav Block is that, if you ask 10 different people what they think are the three best guilds in the block, you'll probably get 10 different answers.

Take Guildpact for example. There's Orzhov, Izzet and Gruul. All three have been thoroughly successful in Standard, each in its own style. Gruul added lots of nasty creatures to Zoo, Orzhov spawned some decks almost by itself (Ghost Dad, Ghost Husk), and Izzet has found its home in Tron decks.

Now, Ravnica... Selesnya spawned Ghazi-Glare (still somewhat alive, with additions from other guilds). Golgari didn't have much impact in Standard, but the Dredge mechanic really helped to power up Ichorid-based decks in Extended and Legacy (and even Vintage). Boros equals Boros Deck Wins, and it also gave some extra punch to White Weenie decks thanks to a red splash. Dimir... well, they got the shaft as a guild, I think, since milling was never successful enough. Still, some of the Transmute cards have been used as specialized tutors in other decks.

Dissension hasn't had time to spawn entire decks yet, beside some experiments with Graft and Hellbent that didn't seem to came to fruition. Azorius got the weakest mechanic, but some really strong flyers for the UW Skies archetype, and some nifty cards waiting to be broken (Dovescape, already featuring sporadically in Glare of Subdual-based decks). Rakdos made everyone drool during the first weeks, but in the end the uproar calmed, and Hellbent still has to be successfully abused. And Simic, well, they gave us the best non-legendary dragon finisher in Standard right now (Simic Sky Swallower), plus a nifty mechanic in Graft, that works really well with others like Bloodthirst. If there wasn't SO MUCH REMOVAL in the block, Simic would totally rule.

This is getting too long even for my tastes :P. Bottom line, I'd say Dimir is the weakest guild in the whole block, and Simic is the strongest, but not by much. The rest are more or less level, each in its own playstyle.

EDIT: Wow, it certainly was long, simu-posted by 16 minutes :o.

[Marak_Knight]

Heres the situation in my area, which is South Wales in the UK. *Bear in mind Im drawing my conclusions mostly from drafting and the odd standard tourney so my view might be a little skewed. *

Rakdos is doing very well in draft but we've yet to see a good standard deck that can use hellbent to anywhere near its full potential.

Simic and Izzet have both done well in draft via the hands of our more combo orientated players but seem to be not doing so well in standard. *Izzet is my current guild of choice for my RedBlue burn standard deck.

Golgari has never been popular at all. *I think its a holdover from the initial release when it always did badly in our Rav only drafts. *No standard decks have been made as far as i know.

Boros and Gruul seem to be the standard favourites at the moment via the RedGreenWhite Zoo deck. *Boros did better at the drafts though.

Dimir did ok when it first came out but died the death soon after. *A couple of mill decks went around in standard for a while but as far as i know theyve been junked.

Azorius has won a couple of drafts but has yet to make any impact in standard. *One of the winning decks did a suprisingly good Simic/Azorius combo so I may make that in standard and see how it goes.

[NeonBlack]

New set incoming, so it's bumpitty-bump time! :D.

Looks like Time Spiral has been designed as a gift for us old timers. Just take a look at these (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/feature/357) three (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/cm35) previews (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/mc55). Look who's coming for dinner... And the cards themselves are as powerful as they should be with those names, specially the third one. And as flavourful as they can be, too. Looking good, indeed...

[Were-Sandwich]

Must, fight, urge to make, Jaya Ballard based deck......

[Semaj_Valencia]

Mishras and Moxes... my god, the cheese is endless.